Chatham grass singer
| Chatham grass singer | ||||||||||||
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Chatham grass singer, below |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Poodytes rufescens | ||||||||||||
| ( Buller , 1869) |
The Chatham grass warbler ( Poodytes rufescens , Syn . : Megalurus rufescens , Bowdleria rufescens ), in English: Chatham Island fernbird , is an extinct species of bird that was endemic to Pitt Island and Mangere Island ( Chatham Islands ) . Its closest relatives still in existence are the fern climber or matata ( Poodytes punctatus ) and the snare fern warbler ( Poodytes caudatus ). Some scientists regarded it as a subspecies of the Matatas and gave it the scientific name Megalurus punctatus rufescens or Megalurus punctatus rufescens . While it was often classified in its own genus Bowdleria in the past , it is synonymous with the Australasian genus Poodytes in current systematics (e.g. IOC World Bird List) .
description
The Chatham grass warbler reached a length of 18 cm and had a wing length of 5.9 to 6.7 cm. It differed from other Schilfsteiger species mainly by a non-dotted white underside, a chestnut-red hood, a distinct white cheek patch and a dark brown back. Nothing is known about his way of life.
die out
In 1868, the New Zealand naturalist Charles Traill discovered the first individual of the Chatham grass singer on Mangare Island and struck him with a stone. He sent this specimen to the renowned New Zealand ornithologist Walter Buller , who described this bird as a new species in 1869. In 1871 the population was described as fairly common on Mangare but reduced on Pitt Island. The reasons for its extinction were evidently the burning down of the scrubland, overgrazing by goats and rabbits, as well as being followed by feral cats. In 1895 the last specimen for a museum collection was shot by Lord Rothschild and it has been considered extinct since 1900.
Museum specimens are now in Auckland , Cambridge (Massachusetts) , Berlin , Chicago , Christchurch , London , Liverpool , New York City , Paris , Pittsburgh and Stockholm .
literature
- James Cowan Greenway : Extinct and Vanishing Birds of the World , Dover Publications Inc. New York, 1967, ISBN 0-486-21869-4
- David Day : The Doomsday Book of Animals , Ebury Press, London, 1981. ISBN 0670279870
- Errol Fuller : Extinct Birds , 2000, ISBN 0-8160-1833-2
- Tim Flannery , Peter Schouten (Illustrator): A Gap in Nature: Discovering the World's Extinct Animals , Atlantic Monthly Press, New York, 2001 ISBN 0871137976 .
- Storrs Lovejoy Olson : Osteology and systematics of the Fernbirds (Bowdleria: Sylviidae) (PDF full text; English; 461 kB)
Web links
- Poodytes rufescens inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019.3. Listed by: BirdLife International, 2016. Retrieved January 20, 2020.