In Borneo rainforest, the largest island in Asia that is politically divided between three Southeast Asian countries Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia, lives a white-eyed Cream-vented Bulbul or Pycnonotus pseudosimplex. Earlier this year, a team of researchers from Louisiana State University led by Subir B Shakya discovered the new species of bird, found in the Sundaic islands.

The news made international headlines after the discovery was published in the scientific journal, the Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club on March 15. This catapulted the team of researchers, whose relentless detective work and advances in genetic sequencing technology attributed to the discovery, into the limelight, especially within the international community of ornithologists. The study’s lead author Shakya, who was born and raised in Kathmandu has been recognised and praised for his persistent hard work.

The 27-year-old ornithologist and PhD candidate at LSU embarked on his journey to the lush forests and mountains of Sumatra on February 16, 2018, with his trusty binoculars as per the suggestion of his advising Professor Dr Frederick H Sheldon, an expert on Birds in the Sundaic islands (Sumatra, Java and Borneo). He decided to get more information about the birds in the area and also get genetic samples.

His team of five members—two fellow LSU researchers and three local Indonesian researchers—camped away from the human settlement at 1,000 metres elevation for eight days. They set up tents and built small working tables using tree branches, and cooked food on fire.

“It is always a challenge to be out in the field. None of our clothes ever fully dried because of the humidity, and we were surrounded by leeches, snakes, insects, and scorpions. We usually hiked for one or two hours for our research, and when it rained, which is 90 percent of the time, it was hard to work as the terrain became slippery,” says Shakya. “But it was definitely an enriching journey that only a few people get to experience, and I enjoyed every bit of it.”

The location for his field study hadn’t been visited by any ornithologist for the last 100 years. This added to the thrill, and was a challenge for Shakya and his team.

On his return from the expedition, he used genetic sequencing to compare the genes of the birds from the expedition to all the samples they have from various regions around the world recorded at LSU. They initially used the genetic information to understand the population structure of birds and also the history of the region.

According to him, these sequences are used by the ornithologists to figure out how birds are moving or migrating, how healthy their population sizes are and how long ago they had colonised the island, among other details. They can also figure out how the birds are related to other species by making family trees of all the birds in that group. It also allows them to find vulnerable and unique populations to subsequently address the conservation requirements for those birds and recommend it to the governmental and non-governmental organisations of the respective countries.

While doing so, Shakya discovered something unusual about the Cream-vented Bulbul, a small brown bird found in Borneo. There are two types of such birds—red-eyed and white-eyed. For more than a century, ornithologists regarded the difference in eye-colour as a trivial matter of individual variation. But during his research, Shakya discovered that the genes of these different eye-coloured birds did not match, which meant that white-eyed Cream-vented Bulbul is an entirely new species.

“If there is more than three percent difference in the DNA, it can be considered as a different species. In this case, red-eyed and white-eyed Cream-vented Bulbul has eight percent difference in their DNA,” he says.

In order to confirm his discovery, he went back to the island on January 2019 and camped there for 16 days, but this time on a higher altitude of 1300 metres. It was then that his team confirmed that white-eyed Cream-vented Bulbul has a different history, a different ecology, and different patterns of behaviour and movement.

For Shakya, the discovery paid off his long-time passion in birds. As a young boy, he used to go bird watching with his parents on holidays. He even learnt to paint birds from Hira Lal Dangol, the legendary bird illustrator and painter. He has utilised his art skills to illustrate his discovery—the white-eyed Cream-vented Bulbul.

From his childhood, he was mentored by Hari Sharan Nepali ‘Kazi’, the first ornithologist of Nepal.

“Kazi ba used to take me on morning walks to Swayambhu for bird watching. He taught me about different birds and how to distinguish one from the other at a young age,” he says.

Currently employed at the LSU museum of Natural Science, he urges young researchers, specially Nepali students studying abroad, to grab opportunities as they come rather than shying away from them and doubting their capabilities.

In the future, he looks forward to study and research about birds in the Himalayan region of Nepal. He even applied for a research permit in Nepal before his expedition to Southeast Asian island but was turned away.  

“Nepal is a great place to study the impacts of climate change and global warming on bird communities because of its incredible biodiversity. The hybrid zones in the country, where some species meet, mate and reproduce offsprings, makes it an interesting research field,” Shakya says.

“In Indonesia, the locals are trained in identifying birds. If we practice the same in Nepal, there is a huge potential for bird-based tourism.”