The golden-fronted bowerbird (''Amblyornis flavifrons'') is a medium-sized, approximately 24 cm long, brown bowerbird. The male is rufous brown with an elongated golden crest extending from its golden forehead, dark grey feet and buffish yellow underparts. The female is an unadorned olive brown bird. An Indonesian endemic, the male builds a tower-like ''"maypole-type"'' bower decorated with colored fruit. Originally described in 1895 based on trade skins, this elusive bird remained a mystery for nearly a hundred years, until 31 January 1981 when the American ornithologist

Jared Diamond Jared Mason Diamond (born September 10, 1937) is an American geographer, historian, ornithologist, and author best known for his popular science books '' The Third Chimpanzee'' (1991); ''Guns, Germs, and Steel'' (1997, awarded a Pulitzer Priz ...

discovered the home ground of the golden-fronted bowerbird at the

Foja Mountains The Foja Mountains (Foja Range, Foya Mountains) ( id, Pegunungan Foja) are located just north of the Mamberamo river basin in Papua, Indonesia. The mountains rise to , and have 3,000 square kilometers of old growth tropical rainforest in the inte ...

in the

Papua province Papua is a province of Indonesia, comprising the northern coast of Western New Guinea together with island groups in Cenderawasih Bay to the west. It roughly follows the borders of Papuan customary region of Tabi Saireri. It is bordered by the ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

In December 2005, an international team of eleven scientists from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, Australia and

led by Bruce Beehler traveled to the unexplored areas of Foja Mountains and took the first photographs of the bird.''Lost World'' of New Species Found in Indonesia
news.nationalgeographic.com. February 2006

References

External links

Amblyornis Birds of Western New Guinea golden-fronted bowerbird {{passeri-stub