A small, brightly colored parrot that had been recorded only once in the past century has been rediscovered in a remote Indonesian forest. According to Smithsonian magazine, ornithologist John Mittermeier spotted the blue-fronted lorikeet in April during an expedition on the island of Buru, marking the first sighting since 2014 and only the second record of the species since it was first described in the 1920s. The nonprofit American Bird Conservancy announced the find on June 3.
A bird that had all but vanished
The blue-fronted lorikeet is a lime-green parrot with a vivid orange bill that lives only on Buru, a large island in Indonesia’s Maluku archipelago. Scientists first described the species from seven specimens collected in Buru’s lowland and mid-elevation forests in the 1920s, and then it seemed to disappear. Decades passed without a confirmed sighting.
That changed only briefly in 2014, when ornithologist Craig Robson, leading a birding tour, spotted at least two of the birds and captured the first known photographs of the species. After that, the trail went cold again. In 2025, the Search for Lost Birds initiative, a global effort led by the American Bird Conservancy along with Re:wild and BirdLife International, added the blue-fronted lorikeet to its list of lost birds, meaning species not documented in at least a decade.
Mittermeier, an ornithologist with the American Bird Conservancy and director of the Search for Lost Birds, described the moment he raised his binoculars and realized what he was seeing. “There’s this bright, lime-green lorikeet with a brilliant orange bill peering down at me through the leaves,” he told Smithsonian. For a species that had spent so long unseen, the sighting was proof the birds still exist.
How the rediscovery happened
The sighting came during a 14-day expedition led by the Indonesian mountaineering group Kanal Buru, whose members were joined by people from the American Bird Conservancy, Birdtour Asia and Yayasan Planet Indonesia. The group set out on a new route to the top of the 8,850-foot Mount Kapalatmada, Buru’s highest peak, climbing through terrain the birders described as arduous, with biting ants, bad weather, thorny plants and no water.
They had been climbing for six days when Mittermeier made his initial sighting on a park-like highland plateau. Two days later, while eating breakfast, the group spotted another blue-fronted lorikeet and managed to photograph it. On their last morning in the highlands, they saw a pair and captured the first known sound recordings of the species’ calls, according to Reuters. In total, Mittermeier estimates the group saw at least nine individuals over the course of the trip.
For the researchers, the hardships were justified by the result. James Eaton, an ornithologist and tour leader for Birdtour Asia, called the bird the group’s “holy grail” and described the discovery as a reminder of “what a beautiful world is there.”
What the find means, and the concerns that remain
Encouraging as it is, the rediscovery does not guarantee the bird’s future. The fact that only a handful have ever been seen suggests the lorikeet occupies a very small area, likely confined to Buru’s high-elevation montane forests. Conservationists say the population is probably tiny and vulnerable, and there is currently too little data for the International Union for Conservation of Nature to determine whether the species belongs on its threatened list.
The threats are familiar ones for island birds. Benny A. Siregar, a coordinator for the conservation group Burung Indonesia, noted that the bird inhabits areas under continuous pressure from deforestation. Mittermeier added that other parrot populations in parts of Indonesia are at risk from trapping for the pet trade, and that many island birds are threatened by introduced predators such as rats and feral cats.
The broader context is a mix of loss and hope. As of January 2026, 121 bird species are considered lost around the world, but recent searches have brought several back into the record. The rediscovery of a species that appears to be surviving in good habitat, Mittermeier said, is “the best possible outcome in the world of lost species.” For readers, the practical thread is that documented sightings, photographs and recordings feed directly into conservation decisions, and that finding a lost bird is only the first step toward protecting it.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
