Cryptic species are well known to ornithologists. In the field and as museum specimens they are difficult to tell apart except for the voice in live birds. Current surveys of bird voices in the Himalayas, carried out since 1970, provided tape recordings not only of the two known species of the timaliid genus Pnoepyga, albiventer and pusilla, but of a third one, which turned out to be new to science. This species, immaculata, was described only this year. All three live sympatrically in Nepal and display different territorial songs. Thus, they are to be treated as full species under the biospecies concept. Details of the voice of the three species show their distinctiveness. Sponsored by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and Feldbausch-Stiftung, Fachbereich Biologie, Universtitat Mainz.
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