Editing Algerian nuthatch (section)

===Discovery and nomenclature===
The Algerian nuthatch was discovered in [[Algeria]] by Jean-Paul Ledant, a Belgian naturalist and ornithologist, on 5 October 1975.<ref name="Laurence"/> Identifying it as quite different from other nuthatches, he wrote to the [[Academy of Sciences]] to report his discovery. Working on a revision of [[Sittidae]], they encouraged Ledant to return to the site.<ref name="Jacques Vielliard 1"/> He tried several times during the winter, but the mountain was too snowy to allow exploration. Ledant was finally accompanied by Jacques Vielliard in mid-April 1976 to observe nesting, which actually occurred later in the year due to the [[massif]] range's difficult climatic conditions. They had to wait until July to observe feeding behaviour and a few [[Fledgling (birds)|fledgling]]s, as well as to make recordings and call trials with songs of Corsican and Krüper nuthatches. Only a dozen pairs were observed, but on the 5–6 July, Vielliard killed a pair of adults that had finished feeding their chicks to be used as [[Type (biology)|type]] specimens.<ref name="Jacques Vielliard 2"/><ref name="Henri Balsac">{{cite journal|last=Balsac|first=Henri Heim de|title= Commentaires sur la découverte d'un élément imprévu de la faune paléarctique |language=fr|trans-title=Comments on the discovery of an unforeseen element of the Palearctic fauna|journal=Alauda |volume=44|issue=3|date=1976|pages=353–355|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/61349494|access-date=30 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Dubois |first1=Alain |last2=Nemésio |first2=André |url=https://www.mapress.com/zt/article/view/zootaxa.1409.1.1|title=Does nomenclatural availability of nomina of new species or subspecies require the deposition of vouchers in collections?|journal=Zootaxa |volume= 1409|date=2007|pages=16|doi=10.11646/ZOOTAXA.1409.1.1}}</ref> Kept in the describer's house, these specimens (the [[holotype]] and [[paratype]]) were seriously damaged after 2005 by insects, and were finally given to the [[National Museum of Natural History, France]] in 2015.<ref name="Laurent Vallotton">{{Cite journal |last=Vallotton|first=Laurent |date=2015 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/297716482|title= The Altai Nuthatch: a missing link? |journal=9th International Meeting of Bird Curators|place= Darwin State Museum, Moscow |via=[[ResearchGate]]}}</ref>

The Algerian nuthatch was formally described in the journal ''Alauda'' by Jacques Vielliard in 1976 under its current name of ''Sitta ledanti''. This discovery greatly surprised the ornithological world, as the bird seemed to come from a "lost world" that has withstood the test of time, the [[Babor Mountains]].<ref name="Harrap"/> A species of bird [[endemic]] to the Mediterranean had not been discovered for nearly a century since the 1883 discovery of the Corsican nuthatch.<ref name="Henri Balsac"/><ref name="Jacques Vielliard 4"/>

In December 1976, the Swiss ornithologist Eric Burnier announced in the journal ''Nos Oiseaux'' that he had discovered the species independently on June 20 of the same year, before learning from a July 28 article in ''[[Le Monde]]'' that he had been preceded in his discovery and that the species had just been named.<ref name="Eric Burnier"/><ref>{{cite journal|last=-JB|first= J.|title=Un oiseau inconnu découvert en Algérie |language=fr|trans-title=An unknown bird discovered in Algeria|journal=Le Monde|date=28 July 1976|url=https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1976/07/28/un-oiseau-inconnu-decouvert-en-algerie_2951235_1819218.html|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190916023836/https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1976/07/28/un-oiseau-inconnu-decouvert-en-algerie_2951235_1819218.html|access-date=30 September 2024|archive-date= 16 September 2019}}</ref> He published a few drawings and field notes, explaining that he had spotted birds that he had judged to have the characteristics of the Corsican nuthatch and Krüper's nuthatch by song and then approached them only a few meters away. The only nuthatch in the [[Maghreb]] then known being the Eurasian nuthatch, which occurs in some localities of the Moroccan [[Rif]] and [[Atlas Mountains]] about 900 km from the Babor Mountains, he knew he was dealing with a new species.<ref name="Eric Burnier"/>