The Taliabu bush warbler (''Locustella portenta'') is a species of

Old World warbler Old World warblers are a large group of birds formerly grouped together in the bird family Sylviidae. The family held over 400 species in over 70 genera, and were the source of much taxonomic confusion. Two families were split out initially, the ci ...

in the family

Locustellidae Locustellidae is a newly recognized family of small insectivorous songbirds ("warblers"), formerly placed in the Old World warbler "wastebin" family. It contains the grass warblers, grassbirds, and the ''Bradypterus'' "bush warblers". These bird ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the island regency of Taliabu in

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 ...

. It has a very small, restricted distribution in a few square kilometers of a mountainous region of the island. It can be distinguished from other members of the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

'' Locustella'' by its unique vocalizations, as well as the fine dusty speckling on its body which increases towards the breast and lower throat. It was described in 2020 alongside 9 other new species and subspecies of birds endemic to islands in

Wallacea Wallacea is a biogeographical designation for a group of mainly Indonesian islands separated by deep-water straits from the Asian and Australian continental shelves. Wallacea includes Sulawesi, the largest island in the group, as well as Lo ...

. All of them were discovered in surveys during 2009 and 2013, the largest such discovery in over a century. Unlike many other bird species described in the study, its existence was not known to the locals on its native island as its calls sounded more like an insect than a bird. Due to its very restricted distribution, it is potentially at major risk from wildfires and

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...

References

Locustella Birds of the Sula Islands Birds described in 2020 {{Locustellidae-stub