MARTIM MELO’S WORK ON THE WORLD’S LARGEST CANARY HIGHLIGHTED BY PÚBLICO

The São Tomé Grosbeak Neospiza concolor is one of the least observed birds in the world and thanks to its strange phenotype was placed in its own monotypic genus. This critically endangered species is endemic to the island of São Tomé (Gulf of Guinea).
CIBIO-InBIO researcher Martim Melo dedicated his research work to understand the evolution of this bird species and identified this elusive bird as being a canary [Genus Crithagra]. this makes it the largest canary in the world, something that called the attention of the media outlet Público. According to Martim, “The strange look of the bird has puzzled taxonomists who believed it represented an old lineage with no close relatives. This study showed that the São Tomé Grosbeak is instead a very recent canary species but whose morphology evolved extremely fast” Even though other questions about the world’s largest canary remain to be clarified, this work has already opened new avenues of knowledge on this enigmatic species, contributing for its conservation.

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“O maior canário do mundo é da ilha de São Tomé” | Público | June 23,2017 (Information available in Portuguese)