Over time, the bird and its history became known as 'the biggest enigma in Indonesian ornithology.' Most in the field assumed it had gone extinct.
The bird was put into storage, and for the next 170 years, there were no further reports of its existence. That finding was the one and only piece of evidence of the bird's existence-it is currently labeled as 'data deficient' in ornithology texts. Records of the find are sketchy, but it appeared the bird had been captured on the island of Java. Back sometime between 18 a bird now called the black-browed babbler was captured by naturalist Carl A.L.M.