Lord Howe Gerygons
| Lord Howe Gerygons | ||||||||||||
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Lord Howe Gerygone (below) on a branch |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Gerygone insularis | ||||||||||||
| Ramsay , 1879 |
The Lord Howe gerygone ( Gerygone insularis ), also known as the Lord Howe gray bush plover , is an extinct species of bird from the family of the South Sea warblers (Acanthizidae). It was endemic to Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea and was at times considered a subspecies of the Maori ygons ( Gerygone igata ).
features
The Lord Howe Gerygons reached a size of 12 centimeters. The top of the head was uniformly brown. The ear covers were light gray. A small eyebrow line stretched above the reins. A light gray eye ring ran around the pink iris. The chin and throat were also light gray with a faint yellowish tinge. The neck and top were brown. At the rump, the color turned yellowish-brown. The throat was light gray-white with a yellowish tinge. The belly was a bright straw yellow. The tail was olive brown at the base and turned black towards the tail end. The four outer pairs of tail feathers showed white spots near the tail tips. The under tail was white. The beak was gray-black. The legs and feet were blue-gray.
Way of life
Almost nothing is known about the way of life of the Lord Howe Gerygons. The islanders called it the "rainbird" because it was particularly active after rainfall.
die out
When discovered, the Lord Howe gerygons was described as being quite common. During a plague of rats that spread from 1918 on Lord Howe Island, the population was so drastically decimated that this species was last detected in 1928. During a search in 1936, the Lord Howe Gerygone could not be rediscovered.
Systematics
The taxonomists Richard Schodde and Ian J. Mason classified the Lord Howe gerygons in 1999 as a subspecies of the Maorigerygons, but after the ornithologist Julian Ralph Ford explained in 1986 that the Lord Howe gerygons are closer to the fan- tailed gerygons ( Gerygone flavolateralis ) and is related to the Mangrove Gerygone ( Gerygone levigaster ), it is recognized in current classifications (Christidis & Boles 1994; Higgins & Peter 2002) as an independent species Gerygone insularis .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ian J.Mason and Richard Schodde: The Directory of Australian Birds: passerines. 1999. ISBN 978-0-643-06456-0
- ↑ Ford, J. (1986b). Phylogeny of the Acanthizid warbler genus Gerygone based on numerical analyzes of morphological characters. Emu. 86: 12-22.
- ↑ Christidis, L. & WE Boles (1994). The Taxonomy and Species of Birds of Australia and its Territories. Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union Monograph 2. Melbourne: Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union.
- ^ Higgins, PJ & JM Peter (Eds) (2002). Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 6. Pardalotes to Spangled Drongo. Oxford University Press, Melbourne.
literature
- Dieter Luther: The extinct birds of the world . 4th edition, unchanged reprint of the edition from 1986. Magdeburg: Westkarp-Wiss and Heidelberg: Spektrum Akad. Verlag. 1995
- Garnett, Stephen T .; & Crowley, Gabriel M. (2000). The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2000 . Environment Australia: Canberra. ISBN 0-642-54683-5
- Hindwood, KA (1940). The Birds of Lord Howe Island. Emu 40 : 1-86.
- Higgins, PJ & JM Peter (Eds) (2002). Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 6. Pardalotes to Spangled Drongo. Oxford University Press, Melbourne.
Web links
- Australian Government, Dept of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. Gerygone insularis
- BirdLife Species factsheet
- Gerygone insularis inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved December 14, 2013.