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Tahiti crake

species of bird

Specimen drawers, botanical folios and brass scientific instruments under study light
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ1113722 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Tahiti crake (Zapornia nigra), also known as Miller's rail, is an extinct species of bird in the family Rallidae.

It was endemic to Tahiti. It was discovered and painted by Georg Forster during the second Cook voyage. John Frederick Miller copied Forster's painting and published it with some changes in his work Icones animalium et plantarum in 1784. Miller coined the binomial name Rallus nigra. It probably went extinct in about 1800 from introduced predators.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Tahiti crake” as species of bird. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA sound reference starting point where classification, measurement and the date of the underlying evidence remain visible. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1784, 1800—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Tahiti, crake and species can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of bird. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1113722. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1784 and 1800.

Critical limits

A general summary may omit uncertainty, sample limits or methodological disagreement that is explicit in the technical record. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Check terminology, classification and the date of the cited evidence. Scientific names and technical consensus can change while older records retain historical value.

Best used for
  • Current terminology
  • Classification context
  • Finding cited technical literature
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Primary datasets, specimen catalogues, standards bodies and the most recent peer-reviewed literature.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Tahiti crake”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Tahiti crake primary sources, Tahiti crake archive and Tahiti research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Tahiti crake”?
  2. Is the terminology current, historical or disputed?
  3. Which observation, specimen, dataset or publication supports the account?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Tahiti crake” 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.