Chatham fernbird

The Chatham fernbird (Poodytes rufescens) is an extinct bird species endemic to Pitt Island and Mangere Island (which belong to the Chatham Islands). Its next living relatives are the Snares fernbird (P. punctatus caudatus) and the New Zealand fernbird or Matata (Poodytes punctatus). Some scientists considered it as subspecies of the Matata and named it Poodytes punctatus rufescens but most others regarded it as full species. While some scientists classified it in its own genus Bowdleria. Other taxonomists (e.g. ITIS) synonymized it with the Australasian genus Megalurus.

Chatham fernbird
Chatham fernbird below

Extinct  (1900)  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Locustellidae
Genus: Poodytes
Species:
†P. rufescens
Binomial name
†Poodytes rufescens
(Buller, 1869)
Synonyms

Bowdleria rufescens
Megalurus rufescens

Description
Chatham fernbird above

It reached a length of 18 cm. It wings were 5.9 to 6.7 cm. In contrast to other fernbird species it had unspotted underparts, a chestnut brown crest, a distinct white loral spot, and a dark red-brown back. It was insectivorous but nothing more is known about its ecology.[2]

Extinction
Chatham fernbird mount from the collection of Auckland Museum

The first individual was discovered in 1868 by New Zealand naturalist Charle Traill on Mangare Island. He killed this bird with a stone and sent this specimen to Sir Walter Buller who described it as new species in 1869. In 1871 the population was described as rather common on Mangare but reduced on Pitt Island. The reasons for its extinction were apparently the brush fires, the overgrazing by goats and rabbits and the predation by rats and feral cats. The last specimen was shot for a collection by Lionel Walter Rothschild in 1895 and it was regarded as extinct by 1900.[3]

Museums specimens can be seen in the Auckland War Memorial Museum, in the Harvard Museum of Natural History, Berlin, Chicago, Christchurch, in the Natural History Museum, in the World Museum Liverpool, in the American Museum of Natural History, in Paris, in Pittsburgh and in Stockholm.

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References
  1. BirdLife International (2012). "Bowdleria rufescens". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. Greenway, James (1967): Extinct and Vanishing Birds of the World
  3. Day, David (1981): The Doomsday Book of Animals

Further reading
  • Greenway, James (1967): Extinct and Vanishing Birds of the World
  • Day, David (1981): The Doomsday Book of Animals
  • Fuller, Errol (2000): Extinct Birds
  • Flannery, Tim & Schouten, Peter (2001): A Gap in Nature
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