by Sebastian K. Herzog The Department of Beni can be full of surprises when it comes to birds. Over the past year, around the northern Beni town of Riberalta, several birders have come across a peculiar black-and-white Sporophila seedeater that has challenged their identification skills.

In the just published Special Issue of the Handbook of the Birds of the World (Lynx Edicions), 15 Amazonian species new to science are described. This includes the splitting of the Striolated Puffbird (Nystalus striolatus) complex into three species, two of which occur in Bolivia. The name of the newly described species, which occurs throughout […]