Blue fronted grouse

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Blue fronted grouse
Systematics
Sub-stem : Vertebrates (vertebrata)
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Crane birds (Gruiformes)
Family : Rallen (Rallidae)
Genre : Pareudiastes
Type : Blue fronted grouse
Scientific name
Pareudiastes silvestris
( Mayr , 1933)

The blue-fronted grouse ( Pareudiastes silvestris , syn .: Gallinula silvestris ) is an extremely rare species of bird from the family of the common railroads (Rallidae). It is endemic to Makira Island in the southeastern Solomon Islands .

features

Details are only known from the holotype , a male caught in 1929. It measures 26.5 cm and weighs 450 g. The wing length is 149 mm, the tail length 40 mm, the beak length (including shield) 56 mm and the tarsal length 60 mm. The plumage is completely plain colored. The head, neck and chest are dark slate blue. The chin and face are almost blackish, apart from a bare, yellow skin on the face. The wing coverts and arm wings are brownish black with an olive tint. The rest of the body is dull brownish black. The iris is chocolate-colored. Legs, feet and beak are bright scarlet. The front shield or frontal shield is dark gray-blue. The tail is very short with hair-like control feathers. The arms are soft and decomposed. The beak is strong and flattened on the sides. The legs and feet are slim.

habitat

The habitat of the blue-fronted grouse is the dense undergrowth of the montane primeval forests on the steep slopes. The type specimen was discovered at an altitude of 580 m, the mountains in the area tower up to an altitude of 1200 m. The region has many streams and rivers that cut into the mountain slopes, but no stagnant water.

Way of life

Little is known about the way of life of the blue-fronted grouse. It rarely, if ever, flew. Locals reported that it ran very quickly through the undergrowth and was difficult to catch. So they used trained hunting dogs to track down the grouse when they fluttered heavily into the bushes. There is also no information on food. However, comparisons with the possibly extinct samoa grouse ( Pareudiastes pacificus ) give rise to the assumption that it feeds on animal food in a similar way.

status

The IUCN lists the blue-fronted grouse in the " critically endangered " category . In addition to the holotype, which was collected in the central mountains of Makira in December 1929, there is only one confirmed sighting from the rocky gorges below Wuranakumau at an altitude of about 450 m on the Naghasi ridge in 1953, where the blue-fronted grouse was found by one participant the Oxford University Expedition has been described as not uncommon. Hunters from the mountain villages near the type locality reported the continued existence of the blue-fronted grouse in 1974. Since then, despite several weeks of searches between 1990 and 2006, there have been only unconfirmed reports of local hunters who claim to be familiar with this species if only through rare encounters. In 2004 calls were reported that may have originated from this species. The tones resembled a meow, were high-pitched, repetitive and sloped towards the end. A ten-day expedition by Birdlife International , the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund and nature photographer Mark O'Brien in August 2015 in eastern Makira remained inconclusive, but a local hunter reported a bird that had been killed three years earlier and which fits the description of the blue-fronted grouse could.

Birdlife International estimates the population to be less than 50 specimens. The reasons for the decline are not clearly understood. Introduced predators can cause considerable damage to island fauna, for example on Guadalcanal , where cats have wiped out many terrestrial native small mammals. Loss of habitat through forest destruction could also be a major source of danger. The ant species Wasmannia auropunctata , which has been recorded on Makira since 1974 , also poses a significant threat as it attacks the eyes of birds living on the ground, ultimately leading to blindness and death of the victim.

literature

  • Josep del Hoyo , Andrew Elliot, Jordi Sargatal : Handbook of the birds of the world- Volume 3, Hoatzin to Auks . - Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 1996, ISBN 84-87334-20-2 , p. 199
  • Sidney Dillon Ripley : Rails of the World - A Monograph of the Family Rallidae. Codline, Boston 1977, ISBN 0-87474-804-6 , pp. 269, 273.
  • P. Barry Taylor & Ber van Perlo: Rails: A Guide to the Rails, Crakes, Gallinules, and Coots of the World. Yale University Press, New Haven 1998, ISBN 0-300-07758-0 , pp. 489-490
  • Danielsen, F., Filardi, CE, Jønsson, KA, Kohaia, V., Krabbe, N., Kristensen, JB, Moyle, RG, Pikacha, P., Poulsen, MK, Sørensen, MK, Tatahu, C., Waihuru , J. & Fjeldså, J .: Endemic avifaunal biodiversity and tropical forest loss in Makira, a mountainous Pacific island. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 31 (1), 2010: pp 100-114.
  • Warren B. King on the behalf of the International council for bird preservation (ICBP) and the Survival service commission of IUCN (1978-1979): Red Data Book 2: Aves (2nd edition). IUCN, Morges, Switzerland. ISBN 0-87474-583-7
  • Ernst Mayr : Birds collected during the Whitney South Sea Expedition. 22. Three new genera from Polynesia and Melanesia . In: American Museum Novitates . No. 590 , 1933, pp. 1–6 (English, online [PDF; 548 kB ; accessed on November 11, 2015]). ( First description as Edithornis silvestris on p. 1)
  • Julian Pender Hume, Michael Walters: Extinct Birds. A & C Black, London 2012. ISBN 1-4081-5725-X , pp. 119-120

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mark O'Brien: Search for the lost Makira Moorhen Birdlife International Pacific, November 4, 2015