Guadalupe copper woodpecker
| Guadalupe copper woodpecker | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
.jpg)
Guadalupe copper woodpecker ( Colaptes auratus rufipileus ) |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Colaptes auratus rufipileus | ||||||||||||
| ( Ridgway , 1876) |
The Guadalupe copper woodpecker ( Colaptes auratus rufipileus ) is an extinct subspecies of the golden woodpecker ( Colaptes auratus ). It was endemic to the island of Guadalupe, off the coast of Baja California .
features
The Guadalupe copper woodpecker reached a length of 30 cm. The adult birds were generally cinnamon brown with black bands on their backs and wings. The parting was light yellow-brown. The neck and back were gray. The rump was pinkish white. The tail was black-brown. A black band ran around the upper chest. The underbust and belly were banded in black and white and showed a yellow-brown-yellowish wash. The beak was black or slate gray. The iris was deep brown. The legs and feet were gray. The males had a black or red streak of beard.
habitat
Walter E. Bryant stated in 1887 that he wanted to have observed these birds in a limited cypress grove at the back of Mount Augusta, the highest point in Guadalupe. Occasionally, the woodpeckers are said to have been sighted in other locations with Monterey pines or palm trees.
die out
When it was discovered by Edward Palmer in 1875, the Guadalupe copper woodpecker was described as quite rare. When Henry Keading visited Guadalupe in 1897, he saw the birds very rarely. The last twelve follicles and six clutches with eggs were collected in May and June 1906 by Wilmot W. Brown, who estimated the total stock to be 40 specimens. Between 1906 and 1922 there was no information available on the population of the Guadalupe copper woodpecker. When naturalists at the California Academy of Sciences tried to search for the woodpeckers in 1922, however, they were unable to find any more specimens. Subsequent search expeditions were also unsuccessful. The main cause of its disappearance is believed to be due to the destruction of vegetation by goats, which were introduced to Guadalupe in 1886 and had reached 40,000 to 50,000 specimens by 1906. Cats could also spread quickly on the island and put an end to the native birds, which were not shy about anything. Today museum specimens can be found in the museums of Berkley in California, Chicago, Cambridge in Massachusetts, New York City, Providence on Rhode Island, Washington, DC and Tring.
literature
- Dieter Luther: The extinct birds of the world . 4th edition, unchanged reprint of the 1986 edition. Westkarp-Wiss and Heidelberg: Spektrum Akad. Verlag, Magdeburg 1995, p. 126
- Julian Pender Hume, Michael P. Walters: Extinct Birds , p. 214, A & C Black 2012, ISBN 140815725X
Individual evidence
- ^ Bryant, WE: Additions to the ornithology of Guadalupe Island , Bulletin 6. California Academy of Sciences, 1887, pp. 285-291
