Japan gets 1st new bird species in 45 years after taxonomic split

TOKYO - A songbird population that breeds on remote islands in southwestern Japan has been recognized as genetically distinct, giving the country its first new bird species in 45 years.

The newly named Tokara leaf warbler, from the Tokara Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture, had long been considered the same species as the Ijima's leaf warbler found more than 1,000 kilometers away in the Tokyo-administered Izu Islands.