Five 'Lost' Birds Just Reappeared Thanks to the Internet and Sharp-Eyed Amateurs

Remember that rusty bush lark that hadn't been seen in 94 years? Two French birders in Chad just casually snapped a photo of it in February 2026. Because apparently, that's where we are now: rediscovering birds that time forgot, often with nothing more than a camera and a keen eye.

This particular lark was one of five "lost" species that reappeared in 2025 alone, largely thanks to the internet and a global network of birding enthusiasts. The Lost Birds List, maintained by the Search for Lost Birds project, tracks species that have pulled a disappearing act for at least a decade. Since 2022, this list has shrunk from a daunting 163 species to a slightly less daunting 120. Which, if you think about it, is both impressive and slightly terrifying.

The Great Birding Comeback of 2025

All five of 2025's avian reappearances were staged in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and here's the kicker: they weren't found by fancy research teams with big budgets. Nope. These were individual birders and photographers, just out there doing their thing.

Take John Lamaris, a Papua New Guinean ornithologist, who photographed the Bismarck kingfisher in May 2025 after a 13-year absence. Or Ethan Skinner, who documented the Biak myzomela, a honeyeater exclusive to a couple of Indonesian islands, after two decades. The broad-billed fairywren also popped up in the same area, with birder Daniel Hoops and guide Royke Mananta not only photographing it but also recording its song — a feat 11 years in the making.

Then there's the Philippines, where Shareef Khaddafi captured the first image of the Sulu cuckooshrike in 18 years, and Martin Kennewell photographed the rufous-breasted blue flycatcher, last seen in 2008. It's almost as if these birds just needed a little privacy before making their grand return.

One potential comeback, however, is still awaiting confirmation: sounds recorded by Harish Thangaraj might be Jerdon’s courser, a nocturnal bird from South India that hasn't made a peep in 125 years. Scientists are still waiting on photographic evidence, because, you know, birds can be tricky.

How a Tweet Can Save a Species

John Mittermeier, the project's director, calls this list an "early warning system." His team scours public platforms like eBird, iNaturalist, and Xeno-Canto (the bird equivalent of Twitter) for sightings of the missing. Most of these thrilling discoveries come from these very platforms, proving that sometimes, the best scientists are just people with a passion and a smartphone.

Meanwhile, in the less cheerful news department, 2025 also saw the slender-billed curlew declared officially extinct, last seen in 1995. Its demise was a classic tale of habitat loss and slow reproduction. On the brighter side (sort of), the white-chested tinkerbird was removed from the list because genetic analysis revealed it was just a subspecies of another bird. So, not lost, just misidentified. Mittermeier sees both outcomes as helpful: no more wasted resources on a ghost, and conservation efforts focused on genuine needs.

But the list giveth, and the list taketh away. Six new species, all island birds, joined the Lost Birds List in 2026. Among them are the critically endangered Mindoro bleeding-heart and the Mindoro imperial pigeon, both from the Philippine island of Mindoro. Island birds, it turns out, are particularly vulnerable to invasive predators, rising seas, and the increasingly intense storms brought on by warming oceans. Mittermeier notes that islands are often "at the forefront of extinctions," which is a rather polite way of saying they're in big trouble.

Still, the list has shrunk by about 25% in five years, largely thanks to those dedicated individual birders. Mittermeier's ultimate goal? Get the list down to zero. A lofty ambition, perhaps, but with a global community of bird-watchers, anything is possible. Even bringing back the almost-forgotten.