Chatham Islands fernbird
species of bird
The Chatham Islands fernbird (Poodytes rufescens) is an extinct bird species that was endemic to the Chatham Islands. It was historically known only from Mangere Island, but fossils have been found on Pitt Island and Chatham Island as well. Its closest living relative is the New Zealand fernbird or matata (Poodytes punctatus). It was formerly treated as a subspecies of the New Zealand fernbird, but is now widely recognized as its own species. Both fernbirds were formerly placed in their own genus Bowdleria; they were later moved to Megalurus and most recently Poodytes.
Description
The Chatham Islands fernbird reached a length of 18 cm. Its wings were 5.9 to 6.7 cm. In contrast to the New Zealand fernbird, it had unspotted white underparts, a chestnut-brown crown, a distinct white loral spot, and a dark red-brown back. It was insectivorous but nothing more is known about its ecology.
Extinction
The first individual known to science was collected in 1868 by New Zealand naturalist Charles Traill on Mangere Island by "knocking it over with a stone".
“Chatham Islands fernbird” enters the record as species of bird. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Chatham, Islands and fernbird can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Chatham Islands fernbird” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.