The world's most mysterious and inaccessible bird has been discovered in Afghanistan.

Swedish ornithologists, in cooperation with Afghan and American researchers, have located the Large-billed Reed warbler in northeastern Afghanistan. This a small and exceedingly rare bird.  Initially discovered in 1867, it has only been observed three times in the proceeding 142 years, until now.

In 2008, Lars Svensson and Urban Olsson of the University of Gothenburg speculated that northeastern Afghanistan was a breeding site for the Warbler, spurred on by an American discovery of unidentifiable bird song that same year. Then, in 2009, Afghan ornithologists Naqeebullah Mostafawi, Ali Madad Rajabi and Hafizullah Noori were able to travel to the hostile region, capturing 15 birds from the unclassified species. DNA analyses in Sweden confirmed that, after a century and a half, the epicenter of the world's most inaccessible bird had been found.

The Large-billed Reed warbler, approximately 13-14 centimeters long and the rarest of its bird family,
was found in the Wakhan region of north-eastern Afghanistan, running between Tajikistan, Pakistan and China, up to the Himalayan mountains. The region, although rich in bird life, takes several days to reach and is subject to frequent violent conflicts, making research difficult. Locating the bird, regarded as under acute threat in the ornithological community, will aid further research as well as allow for possible conservation attempts.