Lost and poorly known birds: top targets for birders in Asia

The rediscovery of Cebu Flowerpecker Dicaeum quadricolor, by Rob Timmins and others in 1992 on the Philippine island of Cebu, was an extraordinary event. The bird had not been seen for 86 years, and had been written off as extinct at least 40 years earlier on the presumption that no forest remained on the island. Six years later, Jon Riley and Jim Wardill finally tracked down the long-tailed blue flycatcher they had been searching for on-and-off for four years on the Indonesian island of Sangihe.