Following a grueling 14-day trek, a team of mountaineers and conservationists has photographed the elusive blue-fronted lorikeet in the highlands of eastern Indonesia’s Buru Island. This is only the second photographed record of the parrot in more than 100 years, according to bird conservation groups.
The blue-fronted lorikeet (Charmosynopsis toxopei) is a small species found only in the island of Buru. The bird, which has a lime-green plumage, an orange beak and a pointed tail, was first identified from seven museum specimens collected in the 1920s.
The avian species went undetected despite surveys conducted in the lowland and mid-elevation forests they’re described from, until it was photographed in 2014 by Craig Robson during a birding tour, according to the Search for Lost Birds project, a global partnership between the NGOs American Bird Conservancy (ABC), Re:wild and BirdLife International.
In April 2026, Indonesian mountaineering group Kanal Buru, which included researchers from ABC, Birdtour Asia and Yayasan Planet Indonesia, led an expedition in Buru. They scaled the limestone terrain of Mount Kapalatmada in the west of the island to reach a 2,700-meter (8,900-foot) summit cloud forest and successfully photographed the parrot. The team also captured its high-pitched calls for the first time.
“We noticed two small birds fly into a nearby tree so I picked up my binoculars to see what one of them was,” John C. Mittermeier, director of the Search for Lost Birds at ABC and part of the expedition, said in a statement by the ABC. “I short-circuited with excitement when I realized it was a Blue-fronted lorikeet.”
For Sumaraja, a Birdtour Asia guide and tour leader, the sighting was deeply emotional. “When we saw the Blue-fronted Lorikeet, I couldn’t hold back my tears,” Sumaraja said in the statement. “Every day, I almost cried with joy at seeing that these birds still exist.”
The blue-fronted lorikeet was listed as data deficient on the IUCN Red List in 2024, when the species was last assessed, owing to the limited information available about it.
While the mountain’s largely inaccessible terrain has served as the lorikeet’s greatest protection, Benny A. Siregar of Burung Indonesia, BirdLife International’s country partner, warned that the species remains highly vulnerable.
“Rare sighting records suggest a highly restricted habitat use. The primary challenge facing the Blue-fronted Lorikeet is that they are facing threats that remain largely unknown. This bird inhabits areas under continuous pressure from deforestation,” he said in a statement to BirdLife.
The parrot could potentially be under threat from logging on the island that’s cleared old forests in the coastal plains and the northern parts of the island, according to a recent research article. Surveys by the nonprofit Konservasi Kakatua Indonesia (KKI) have also found there is local hunting of birds, including several parrot species.
Expedition leader Handoko said he hopes the rediscovery will inspire local conservation efforts. “I hope to share these experiences to empower people in Buru to protect this unique area,” he said.
Banner image of a Blue-fronted Lorikeet. Image courtesy of John C. Mittermeier.
This story first appeared on Mongabay
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