IT IS a story that sums up the struggles facing conservationists. A new finch-like bird is identified for the first time in eastern Venezuela, and within two years its habitat has been destroyed to make way for a hydroelectric dam.
Miguel Lentino discovered the tiny seed-eating bird in July 2001 during a biological survey of the region for EDELCA, a Venezuelan electricity company. It was found to be new to science, and dubbed the Carrizal blue-black seedeater (Amaurospiza carrizalensis) after the tiny uninhabited island on the river Caroni where it was found. It is also the only Venezuelan representative of…
