St. Helena Cuckoo

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St. Helena Cuckoo
Systematics
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Cuckoo birds (Cuculiformes)
Family : Cuckoos (Cuculidae)
Genre : Nannococcyx
Type : St. Helena Cuckoo
Scientific name
Nannococcyx psix
Olson , 1975

The St. Helena cuckoo ( Nannococcyx psix ) is an extinct species of bird in the cuckoo family . It is the only species in the genus Nannococcyx .

Only a fragment of the right humerus of the St. Helena cuckoo is known, which was found in 1970 by John William Bailey in Prosperous Bay on St. Helena and scientifically described in 1975 by Storrs Lovejoy Olson . The bone fragment is light brown, not mineralized and has a length of 14.2 mm. However, the bird may have been larger than the fragment suggests, as some extinct bird species on St. Helena, such as the St. Helena hoopoe, were gigantic. The St. Helena cuckoo was believed to be a forest bird and died out due to habitat destruction in the 18th century.

literature

  • Storrs L. Olson: Paleornithology of St. Helena Island, south Atlantic Ocean. Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology 23 (1975)

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