For the first time in 170 years, a bird that has been “missing” from the Asian wild has reappeared in Indonesia. The black-browed babbler, whose scientific name is Malacocincla perspicillata, is so rare that only one specimen was ever procured and documented, and that was between 1843 and 1848, according to a paper that was published in the Oriental Bird Club’s journal Birding Asia. There is very little recorded information about the bird, including population size or whether the babbler is endangered or not. Currently, its protection status is assessed as data deficient by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. However, in October 2020, two local men, Muhammad Rizky Fauzan and Muhammad Suranto, chanced upon the bird in South Kalimantan, Indonesia. They photographed the unique bird and reported their discovery to fellow bird watchers in birdwatching groups. “It feels surreal to know that we have found a species …