Manu'a strangler monarch
| Manu'a strangler monarch | ||||||||||||
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| Clytorhynchus vitiensis powelli | ||||||||||||
| ( Salvin , 1879) |
The Manuʻa strangler monarch ( Clytorhynchus vitiensis powelli ) is one of twelve subspecies of the Fiji strangler monarch ( Clytorhynchus vitiensis ). It has been considered missing since the cyclone season at the beginning of the 1990s, but was spotted again from 2005. Its distribution area are the islands of Manuʻa and Ofu-Olosega in American Samoa .
features
The Manuʻa strangler monarch is a medium-sized bird that reaches a size of 18 cm. It has a strong beak. The head, back, wings and tail are brownish black. Three lateral tips of the tail are white. Throat, chest and belly are brownish slate gray. The flanks are brownish.
Way of life
Reverend Thomas Powell, after whom the taxon was named, reported to the first describer Osbert Salvin in 1879 that the monarchs were aggressive, intrepid birds. They flew around the people who were invading their precinct and gave continuous, harsh cries. The Manu'a shrike monarch is an insect eater and uses its large, powerful beak to search for food in dead leaves and crumbled wood.
status
The forests in which the Manuʻa strangler monarch once lived were massively cleared. The more fragmented the forests progressed, the more drastic was the decline in the monarch population due to the invading cyclones . Ever since tropical hurricanes Ofa and Val wreaked havoc on American Samoa in 1990 and 1991, the Manuʻa strangler monarch has been thought missing until new sightings in 2005 confirmed that it still exists. In spring 2014, one specimen was photographed alive.
literature
- Osbert Salvin: On some Birds transmitted from the Samoan Islands by the Rev. T. Powell. In: Proceedings of The Zoological Society of London 1879, pp. 128-131 (Salvins first description as Pinarolestes powelli Online )
- Julian Pender Hume, Michael P. Walters: Extinct Birds , pp. 243-244, A&C Black 2012, ISBN 140815725X