FOR the past century, the Blue-fronted Lorikeet was one of Indonesia’s most elusive birds, known only from a 2014 photographic record and a handful of museum specimens, with a lingering hope that it had not vanished. After days of climbing through sharp limestone, biting insects and difficult mountain terrain, a flash of green feathers high on Buru’s highest peak showed that this dazzlingly colourful parrot was still there.

Endemic to the island of Buru — meaning it is found nowhere else on Earth — the small bird was spotted in April during an expedition led by an Indonesian mountaineering group. The team photographed the bird for the first time in 12 years and captured the first sound recordings of its high-pitched calls — sounds birds often use to keep contact in the forest canopy.

The lorikeet’s bright green body, orange bill, blue hindcrown and pointed tail helped the team identify it. The team was looking specifically for this species, but the odds felt slim.

“When you are looking for a bird that has only been documented once in the past century it feels like a long shot,” said John Mittermeier, director of the Search for Lost Birds at the American Bird Conservancy conservation group.

First described from seven specimens collected in the 1920s, the Blue-fronted Lorikeet has been one of Indonesia’s avian mysteries. The bird went unrecorded for nearly 90 years despite searches in lowland and mid-elevation forests, before being photographed in 2014.

There was a long-held suspicion that the parrot may not have been gone, but rather living higher up in the mountains than searchers had managed to look. The highlands landscape where the lorikeet was found had remained largely inaccessible until recently, when local climbers map­ped a route into the mountains.

Published in Dawn, June 4th, 2026