Norfolk star
| Norfolk star | ||||||||||||
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Norfolk Star ( Aplonis fusca ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Aplonis fusca | ||||||||||||
| Gould , 1836 |
The Norfolk Star ( Aplonis fusca , Syn .: Aplonis fuscus ) was described by John Gould in 1836 as a monotypical species of starling from Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island . However, the Australian ornithologist Gregory Macalister Mathews recognized in 1928 that the plumage of the Lord Howe Island breed was browner and less gray than that of the Norfolk Island breed, and split Aplonis fuscus into the nominate form Aplonis fusca fusca (Norfolk Star) and the Subspecies Aplonis fusca hulliana ( Lord Howe Star ). With the islanders of Norfolk and Lord Howe they were called "roach" or "cúdgimarúk" after their call. Both races are extinct.
description
He reached a size of 20 cm. The wing length was 9.8 to 10.3 cm, the tail length 6.3 to 6.8 cm, the beak length 1.3 cm and the barrel 2.5 cm. It was generally grayish brown. The male was a shiny metallic green from head to throat. The back, the rump, the upper tail-coverts, the wing coverts and the underside were gray, but the lower tail coverts whitish. The beak was black and the eyes red-orange. The female was colored similar to the male. The greenish sheen was duller, however, and a gray throat contrasted with the light brown flanks. The lower breast was washed out in ocher. The belly and the underside of the tail were yellowish white.
die out
The reasons for its extinction are unclear. Overhunting and habitat destruction are believed to have played an important role. Reports that he, like his cousin from Lord Howe Island, were exterminated by rats are inaccurate, as there was a rat plague on Norfolk Island only in the 1940s. He died out in 1923.
literature
- Errol Fuller: Extinct Birds. 2000, ISBN 0-8160-1833-2
Web links
- Birdlife factsheet - Aplonis fusca
- Birdtheme.org illustration on a postage stamp
- Aplonis fusca inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved December 9, 2013.