Bonin Grosbeak
| Bonin Grosbeak | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bonin Grosbeak ( Carpodacus ferreorostris ) |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Carpodacus ferreorostris | ||||||||||||
| ( Vigors , 1828) |
The Bonin Grosbeak or Bonin Finch ( Carpodacus ferreorostris ) is an extinct finch . Earlier the species was in a separate genus Chaunoproctus out, but recent molecular genetic studies create a relationship to the Karmingimpeln close. It belongs to the various bird taxa that are colloquially known as the grosbeak , but are not closely related to the grosbeak in the narrower sense.
description
It reached a length of 20 cm. The male's forehead, eye stripes, cheeks, throat and upper chest were orange-red. The lower breast was lighter and turned whitish towards the belly. The rest of the plumage was olive brown with dark brown stripes on the back. The bill, feet and legs were probably blackish brown. The females were generally medium brown, had a yellowish forehead and the flank feathers had dark brown tips. Contemporary figures show considerable differences, especially in the males. Whether this was due to seasonal fluctuations, or whether several subspecies or even species existed, could only be determined after a complete inspection of the available material.
Way of life and food
It was a reclusive but not shy bird and was usually seen singly or in pairs. Its diet consisted of fruits and buds, which it mainly picked from the ground or from low bushes. Seldom seen crouching in trees, it was apparently quite lazy and hesitant to fly. His singing consisted of soft, pure and high notes, sometimes drawn out, sometimes singly and sometimes in quick succession.
distribution
It was only found on Chichi-jima ( Bonin Islands ). While reports that it also appeared on Haha-jima are almost certainly false, he could have lived on Anijima and Ototojima as well. Chichi-jima is the only place where this bird has been observed.
die out
The Bonin Grosbeak was discovered on Captain Beechey's Pacific expedition, which collected two specimens on Chichi-jima in 1827 . In the following year Heinrich von Kittlitz shot several more specimens. However, he only gave Boninsima ( Ogasawara Islands ) as a place of discovery. After two shipwrecked sailors taken in by Beechey reported that the island would be a good stopover for whaling ships, settlement began around 1830. When the North Pacific Exploring Expedition von Rodgers-Ringgold visited Chichi-jima in 1854, the naturalist William Stimpson could not detect a single bird. What he found, however, were rats , feral domestic goats , sheep , dogs and cats as well as pigs that had been present since 1828 (and that Beechey left behind on the island as provisions for future castaways). Just like the Bonin Earth Thrush , the Bonin Hawfinch succumbed to habitat destruction and looting by introduced mammals soon after 1830. In 1889, settlers reported to bird collector AP Holst that some birds were said to have persisted on Haha-jima until the early 1880s. However, this was never confirmed, especially since this species was not detected either in 1853 during the visit of officer Matthew Perry or in 1854 to Haha-jima. Its sedentary habits made it largely unlikely to be found on islands outside the Chichi-jima archipelago.
Of the specimens that were once collected, 10 still exist in museum collections today.
literature
- Greenway, James (1967): Extinct and Vanishing Birds of the World, Dover Publications Inc. New York, ISBN 0-486-21869-4
- Errol Fuller (2000). "Extinct Birds", ISBN 0-8160-1833-2
- Flannery, Tim & Schouten, Peter (2001). A Gap in Nature: Discovering the World's Extinct Animals, Atlantic Monthly Press, New York. ISBN 0-87113-797-6 .
- David Day (1981). "The Doomsday Book of Animals", Ebury Press, London, ISBN 0-670-27987-0
- Vigors, Nicholas Aylward (1828): [Description of Chaunoproctus ferreorostris ]. Zool. J. 4 : 354.
Individual evidence
- ↑ D. Zuccon, R. Prŷs-Jones, P. Rasmussen and P. Ericson: The phylogenetic relationships and generis Limits of finches (Fringillidae) . In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . tape 62 , no. 2 , February 2012, p. 581-596 , doi : 10.1016 / j.ympev.2011.10.002 ( nrm.se [PDF]).
Web links
- Carpodacus ferreorostris in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed on December 20 of 2008.