Pubdate: Tue, 15 May 2007 Source: Age, The (Australia) Copyright: 2007 The Age Company Ltd Contact: http://www.theage.com.au/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) BIRD DISCOVERY WORTH HUMMING ABOUT A NEW hummingbird species discovered in a cloud forest in Colombia already needs protection from humans, according to the experts who found the bird. Called the gorgeted puffleg, the new species, with a blue and green throat, measures between 90 and 100 millimetres. The male was an iridescent green and electric blue patch on its throat - -- the gorge -- and from tufts of white feathers at the top of the legs. Ornithologists Alexander CortDes-Diago and Luis Alfonso Ortega first saw the bird in 2005 during surveys of mountain cloud forest in the Serrania del Pinche, in south-west Colombia. After the birds were seen again last year, photographs were sent to Germany's Koenig Zoological Research Museum. "We immediately suspected the bird as a new species," the museum's Andre Weller said. "Further study has shown that this is certainly the most spectacular discovery of a new hummingbird taxon during the last decade or more." Mr CortDes-Diago said he went to the Serrania del Pinche hoping to find new amphibians and discovering a bird species was "completely unexpected". The isolated Serrania del Pinche may harbour more species, but it is threatened by slash-and-burn agriculture and the cultivation of coca, the plant used to make cocaine. "Destruction of habitat is the (bird's) main threat," Colombia's Hummingbird Conservancy warned, adding that slash-and-burn farming can "easily burn a whole mountain." - --- MAP posted-by: Derek