First-Ever Video of a Ghana Cuckooshrike After 13 Years as a ‘Lost’ Bird Species

The Ghana Cuckooshrike — a “lost” bird species that hasn’t been seen in 13 years — was filmed for the first time ever.

The Ghana Cuckooshrike, one of Africa’s most enigmatic forest birds, was filmed in Taï National Park, West Africa by researchers Stephanie Bartlett and Paulo Ditzel of the International Bird Conservation Partnership (IBCP)

Before Bartlett and Ditzel’s discovery, the Ghana cuckooshrike was considered one of 126 birds “lost” to science, a term generally used for species that have not been reliably seen for at least a decade. The bird was last photographed in Ghana’s Kakum National Park in 2010 and the Atewa Forest Reserve in 2013, with no confirmed sightings since.

Bartlett and Ditzel rediscovered the species during a six-month expedition through West Africa. Before the trip, they had jokingly discussed the possibility of finding a “lost bird” such as the Ghana cuckooshrike, even though they knew the odds were extremely low.

According to a news release by IBCP, as Bartlett and Ditzel crossed a small bridge beneath a towering rainforest canopy one afternoon, the pair noticed a quick movement overhead. Looking through the dense foliage, they soon spotted the bird’s distinctive yellow, orange, and black plumage.

“Cuckooshrike, cuckooshrike, cuckooshrike!” Ditzel urgently whispered to Bartlett after realizing the long-lost bird was directly above them, feeding low in the canopy where they could see it clearly.

‘I Got a Photo of The Bird Before I Saw it’

Bartlett, an experienced photographer, was ready with her camera and immediately began taking pictures as the bird moved through the branches across the stream. She captured the highest-quality photographs ever taken of the species, as well as the first known video of it. The encounter was especially remarkable after six months of bird surveys across West Africa, during which Bartlett had become accustomed to seeing many species only briefly before they disappeared into the forest.

“I got a photo of the bird before I saw it,” Bartlett tells Mongabay. “They’re scared of you. You don’t get to get close to them, and so often you have to use the camera as a tool for identification.”

“If I had seen that bird with anyone else, it wouldn’t have worked out, and we would not have gotten a picture,” Ditzel says of his working relationship with Bartlett. “We have this perfect little way.”

Ditzel recalls how he ran back to alert the rest of the team after seeing the Ghana cuckooshrike with Bartlett. But by the time everyone else made it to the small wooden bridge, the bird had disappeared.

The species is notoriously hard to find because it typically stays 65 to 165 feet above the ground, high in the crowns of the tallest trees. It also travels with mixed-species flocks and is remarkably quiet. In fact, no audio recording of the bird has ever been made.

Nevertheless, John Mittermeier, director of the Search for Lost Birds at the American Bird Conservancy (ABC), tells Mongabay that Bartlett’s images are “probably the best photos ever taken of this bird.” The Search for Lost Birds is a collaborative effort to find and document bird species that have not been confirmed for at least 10 years using photographs, video, audio, or genetic evidence.

The discovery comes months after the Rusty Lark, a small bird thought to be extinct for nearly a century, was photographed for the first time.