A multinational team of ornithologists has discovered a new bird species in Phnom Penh, the capital and largest city of Cambodia.

The bird, named the Cambodian tailorbird (Orthotomus chaktomuk), is one of only two bird species found solely in Cambodia. The other, the Cambodian laughingthrush, is restricted to the remote Cardamom Mountains.

Orthotomus chaktomuk is the wren-sized gray bird with a rufous cap and black throat. It lives in dense, humid lowland scrub in Phnom Penh and other sites in the floodplain.

“The modern discovery of an undescribed bird species within the limits of a large populous city – not to mention 30 minutes from my home – is extraordinary,” said Dr Simon Mahood, a researcher with the Wildlife Conservation Society Cambodia Program, who is a lead author of a paper describing the Cambodian tailorbird in the journal Forktail (paper in .pdf).

“The discovery indicates that new species of birds may still be found in familiar and unexpected locations.”

The specific name chaktomuk is an old Khmer word meaning four-faces.

“The bird’s habitat is declining. The species is classified as Near Threatened under the IUCN’s Red List,” the ornithologists explained.

“This discovery is one of several from Indochina in recent years, underscoring the region’s global importance for bird conservation,” said co-author Dr Colin Poole from the Wildlife Conservation Society Singapore.

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Bibliographic information: Mahood SP et al. 2013. A new species of lowland tailorbird (Passeriformes: Cisticolidae: Orthotomus) from the Mekong floodplain of Cambodia. Forktail: The Journal of Asian Ornithology 29: 1-14