COLLEGE STATION – "Four and 20 black birds baked in a pie" – but
wait, one has blue-gray eyes. That discovery, backed by DNA
analysis, means scientists now know there is one more species of
black shrike in the Albertine Rift of Africa than was previously
thought. And if Dr. Gary Voelker has his way, he'll soon be
studying the bird's habits to determine its susceptibility to
the deforestation now occurring across its native habitat. The
bird Laniarius willardi, is a newly described species of boubou
shrike (Malaconotidae) whose single distinctive trait is its
blue-gray eyes. The paper describing the new species will appear
in the July issue of the international ornithological journal
The Auk. "This bird has been around for probably at least a
couple million years; it's old, but it's new to science at least
in the DNA age," said Voelker, assistant professor of wildlife
and fisheries and curator of birds with Texas AgriLife Research
at College Station. "Clearly, it was noticed before, because as
we started to lo