Washington, Apr 20 : University of Florida ornithologists have discovered a new genus of frogmouth bird on the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific.

The new genera of living birds are rare discoveries and fewer than one per year is announced globally.

David Steadman and Andrew Kratter, ornithologists at the Florida Museum of Natural History, and co-authors of a study analysing the frogmouth’s morphology in the International Journal of Avian Science, turned up the surprising new discovery on a collecting expedition in the Solomon Islands. Theirs is also the first frogmouth from these islands to be caught by scientists in more than 100 years.

The bird has been described as a new genus and the species named as Rigidipenna inexpectata.

“This discovery underscores that birds on remote Pacific islands are still poorly known, scientifically speaking. Without the help of local hunters, we probably would have overlooked the frogmouth,” said Steadman.

Originally, the bird was misclassified as a subspecies of the Australian Marbled Frogmouth, Podargus ocellatus. The blunder went undetected for decades, until a collecting trip led by Kratter in 1998 turned up a specimen on Isabel, a 1,500-square-mile island in the Solomons.

Today, the only museum specimen of this bird in the world, with an associated skin and skeleton, is housed at the Florida Museum.

Frogmouths are predatory birds named for their strikingly wide, strong beak that resembles a frog’s mouth; but their beak also sports a small, sharp hook more like an owl’s. The birds eat insects, rodents, small birds and even frogs.

The Solomon Islands Frogmouth differs from other frogmouths in a number of significant ways.

It is not as accomplished of a flier because its eight tail-feathers, instead of the typical 10 to 12 on other frogmouths, curtail its lift potential, and its much coarser feathers reduce manoeuvrability.

Secondly, it has a distinct barring on the primary wing feathers and tail feathers, where other frogmouths are more uniform. Its speckles are larger, and the white spots on its breast and underbelly are more pronounced than on other frogmouths.

“These are island adaptations that work to keep the bird on the island,” Steadman said.

Two other genera of frogmouths exist: one in southeast Asia and the other in Australia and New Guinea. The Solomon Islands Frogmouth is known to inhabit three islands: Isabel, Bougainville and Guadalcanal. (ANI)