Chatham snapper
| Chatham snapper | ||||||||||||
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Chatham flycatcher ( Petroica traversi ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Petroica traversi | ||||||||||||
| ( Buller , 1872) |
The Chatham flycatcher ( Petroica traversi ), also known as Chatham Island Robin or Black Robin , is a New Zealand bird species that is only endemic to the Chatham Islands .
description
The size of the Chatham catch is approximately 15 cm. The weight of the male is around 25 g, the female is a little lighter at around 22 g. The plumage is completely black. The flight ability is still well preserved, but the Chatham flycatchers only fly short distances from branch to branch and to the ground.
Threat and protection
Originally, the bird had no natural enemies on the islands. With the colonization of the archipelago and the accompanying introduction of nest predators or predators (such as domestic cats), the species was decimated to the point of extinction.
In 1972 rangers found only 18 Chatham snapper on Little Mangere Island . In 1976 only seven of them were still alive, in 1980 two more birds died and no pair had hatched. Of the five surviving birds, there was only one reproductive female, known as "Old Blue". This made the Chatham flycatcher one of the rarest bird species in the world in 1981. The population has "recovered" from these five specimens to currently over 150 specimens. The New Zealand ornithologist Don Merton made a special contribution to the preservation of these birds, who became known far beyond New Zealand with this rescue operation and who has also written a book about it. In the episode “Kakapo” from the BBC television series “ The Last of their Kind ” Stephen Fry reports on 200 living specimens.
According to the Red List of Endangered Species , the species is considered critically endangered.
Film and literature
- 2005: Marco Polo close-up documentary "New Zealand's rarest birds" (film about the rescue of the Chatham flycatcher).
- 1992: David Butler, Don Merton: The Black Robin: Saving the World's Most Endangered Bird , Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-558260-8
- 2007: Handbook of the Birds of the World Volume 12 Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees .
Web links
- New Zealand Birds
- Plaque for Old Blue
- Petroica traversi in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed on December 21 of 2008.
- Bird Definitives - Black Robin . New Zealand Post, archived from the original onMay 22, 2010; accessed on August 9, 2014.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b factsheet at www.birdlife.org (accessed on August 12, 2009)