{
  "id": 18034155,
  "title": "Photograph helps identify a West African bird not seen in 13 years",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/03/photograph-helps-identify-a-west-african-bird-not-seen-in-13-years",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-11-03T22:16:25.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Mongabay",
    "slug": "mongabay",
    "url": "https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/11/photograph-helps-identify-a-west-african-bird-not-seen-in-13-years/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A rare bird, the Ghana cuckooshrike, was recently sighted in Côte d’Ivoire’s Taï National Park after being absent for 13 years. The bird, with its striking orange body and black and yellow wings, had not been documented since 2013 in Ghana’s Atewa Forest. Field research fellow Stephanie Bartlett from the International Bird Conservation Partnership (IBCP) captured the bird on camera, unaware she had even seen it. Her photograph confirmed the bird's identity, revealing its small size and distinctive plumage. The sighting was the result of months of fieldwork and bird surveys supported by a team of West African researchers. Paulo Ditzel, another IBCP research fellow, emphasized the crucial role of the researchers in this project. The Ghana cuckooshrike, known to inhabit sections of West Africa from Guinea to Ghana within the Upper Guinean Rainforest, has seen its habitat shrink due to logging and agriculture, leaving it in isolated patches of forest. The bird was previously listed on the Search for Lost Birds (SLB) platform, indicating its potential existence despite not being seen for a decade.",
  "summary": "Researchers recently spotted the brightly colored Ghana cuckooshrike in Côte d’Ivoire’s Taï National Park. The “lost” bird hadn’t been seen in 13 years, reports Mongabay’s John Cannon. Stephanie Bartlett, a field research fellow with the International Bird Conservation Partnership (IBCP), took a photo of the cuckooshrike while Paulo Ditzel, also an IBCP research fellow, called […]",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "bioRxiv",
        "title": "A baseline for aquatic parasite diversity in West African mangroves: host-parasite records, DNA barcodes, and an experimental design for future use",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/03/a-baseline-for-aquatic-parasite-diversity-in-west-african-mangroves",
        "published": "2026-11-03T00:00:00.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}