BIRD DISCOVERY WORTH HUMMING ABOUT

A NEW hummingbird species discovered in a cloud forest in Colombia
already needs protection from humans, according to the experts who
found the bird.

Called the gorgeted puffleg, the new species, with a blue and green
throat, measures between 90 and 100 millimetres.

The male was an iridescent green and electric blue patch on its throat
- -- the gorge -- and from tufts of white feathers at the top of the
legs.

Ornithologists Alexander CortDes-Diago and Luis Alfonso Ortega first
saw the bird in 2005 during surveys of mountain cloud forest in the
Serrania del Pinche, in south-west Colombia.

After the birds were seen again last year, photographs were sent to
Germany's Koenig Zoological Research Museum.

"We immediately suspected the bird as a new species," the museum's
Andre Weller said.

"Further study has shown that this is certainly the most spectacular
discovery of a new hummingbird taxon during the last decade or more."

Mr CortDes-Diago said he went to the Serrania del Pinche hoping to
find new amphibians and discovering a bird species was "completely
unexpected".

The isolated Serrania del Pinche may harbour more species, but it is
threatened by slash-and-burn agriculture and the cultivation of coca,
the plant used to make cocaine.

"Destruction of habitat is the (bird's) main threat," Colombia's
Hummingbird Conservancy warned, adding that slash-and-burn farming can
"easily burn a whole mountain."