Episode 486: Two Rediscovered Birds

Episode 486: Two Rediscovered Birds

From Strange Animals Podcast by Katherine Shaw

May 25, 2026 · 8 min

About this episode

This episode discusses the rediscovery of two bird species, focusing on the black-naped pheasant-pigeon and Confuciusornis.

Further reading: https://www.audubon.org/news/like-finding-unicorn-researchers-rediscover-black-naped-pheasant-pigeon-bird https://www.sci.news/paleontology/confuciusornis-shifan-11528.html The black-naped pheasant-pigeon: Confuciusornis: Show transcript: We’re going to learn about two birds that have been in the news lately. The first is the black-naped pheasant-pigeon. The word nape refers to the back of the neck, and this bird does have a black neck. It’s a dark blue-black all over, in fact, with reddish-brown wings, a red bill, red eyes, and long yellow legs. It looks almost identical to the other three species of pheasant-pigeons known, although some scientists think they’re subspecies. Those three are the white-naped, the green-naped, and the grey-naped pheasant-pigeons, and if you’re wondering if the spot of color on the back of the neck is the easiest way to tell these birds apart, you are exactly right. All four species are native to parts of New Guinea or small islands nearby. Pheasant-pigeons look a lot like pheasants and are about the size of a chicken, although they’re actually pigeons. They live in forests and eat seeds and fruit, and while they can fly they spend…

People in this episode

Host: Katherine Shaw

Topics covered

  • bird species
  • rediscovery
  • paleontology
  • New Guinea
  • wildlife
  • conservation

Keywords

  • black-naped pheasant-pigeon
  • Confuciusornis
  • bird species
  • New Guinea
  • wildlife conservation
  • paleontology
  • rediscovery

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Audubon, Sci News

Books & works: black-naped pheasant-pigeon, Confuciusornis

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