Chloris sp. 'Madeira'

[Deleted]

The extinct finch record obtained from Upper Pleistocene-Holocene paleontological sites in Macaronesia include: 1) an undescribed extinct species of Carduelis sp. and Coccothraustes coccothraustes (hawfinch), both reported in the fossil record of Madeira [23]; 2) Carduelis triasi (Trias greenfinch), an extinct greenfinch from La Palma (Canary Islands) [24] and 3) fragmented bones related to C. chloris (common greenfinch) have been described in the fossil record of La Gomera [25]. Unfortunately, no data exist about the diet of these extinct species.

source:

www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0012956

[adzebill]

Some sketchy information about this species.

"Further, we were able to identify various species of Fringillidae, among which, the endemic Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs maderensis), so that the questions of speciation and distributional history of the genus Fringilla on the Mid-Atlantic islands, which have been studied chiefly by Grant (1979) can now be discussed in the light of new data.
We also found the rostrum of a Hawfinch (Coccothraustes coccothraustes) which has been recorded only as a vagrant in recent times and, above all, we have proof of other thick-billed finches of at least one new species related to the genus Acanthis"

H. Pieper. The fossil land birds of Madeira and Porto Santo.
Bocagiana 88 (1985)
Fragment found with google.

I guess that the thick-billed "Acanthis", and the "Carduelis" of this thread is the same bird (there is no reference to Carduelis in Pieper's paper), but maybe the taxonomic status of this bird is not so clear. In this recent paper:
www.juancarlosillera.es/images/M_images/JuanCarlos/Publicaciones/2012/QSR-%202012_50-14.pdf
the fossil remains are refered only as "Fringillidae sp."

[adzebill]

Recently I have notice of a bird, reported from Madeira island in the early 1820's and named Goniaphea leucocephala, and I'm quite puzzled with it.

In "Excursions in Madeira and Porto Santo, during the autumn of 1823, while on his third voyage to Africa", by Thomas Edward Bowdich and Sarah (Wallis) Bowdich Lee, page 29, can be read this:

"I saw another and more curious bird, fig. 28, but I doubt if it is a native of the island. The outline of the beak most resembles that of the widow-bird, (vidua, Cuv.) but the commissure is situated like that of the grakle, (gracula, Cuv.) immediately beneath the nostril, and forms a much deeper angle; it evidently belongs to the conirostres of Cuvier, and I should place it under the name of goniaphea, between fringilla and corythus" (...)
The upper mandible closes over the lower, and the middle toe is longer than the others; the whole bird is black, with the exception of the head, which is azure. G. leucocephala".

In the same book there is also a drawing of the bird's forehead and bill:


Apparently, there was an specimen, now lost. It was evidently a very rare bird (not recorded, as far as I know, before o after) and Bowdich doubted it was native. But there is no bird in Europe, North and West Africa, Western Asia or North America that could match the description of "Goniaphea leucocephala" (a finch-like bird with huge bill, pale blue head and black body), so the possibility of a vagrant species can be ruled out. It could be an escaped bird (but which? A very aberrant Lonchura? Some brazilian bird?), or an endemic (and extinct) species (maybe the "Carduelis sp." "cf Acanthis" or "Fringillidae sp." reported from fossil bones).
Some birds assigned formerly to Goniaphea are now placed in Pheucticus (Cardinalidae), but Bowdich though the bird was related to Fringilla (not sure it was used in strict sense) and "Corythus" (nowadays Pinicola), and certainly a bluish or grey tint at the head is not unknown in Fringillidae (f.e. Fringilla coelebs, Leucosticte tephrocotis, Ciridops annae).
What do you think? Was this an endemic extinct finch of Madeira?
Someone knows any living bird that could fit in Bowdich's description of Goniaphea leucocephala?

[another specialist]

Adzebill can you provide link to where you found the information above?

[adzebill]

Bowdich's book can be found here:
www26.us.archive.org/details/excursionsinmade01bowd

With a little help of Google books I borrowed also this passage of Harald Pieper's "The fossil land birds of Madeira and Porto Santo":
"In this connection we should draw attention to the opinion that Goniaphea leucocephala described by BOWDICH (1825) could belong to Passerina, a New World genus, and not to the Fringillidae (s.str.), does not appear to be plausible. Unfortunately, a large part of the material collected by BOWDICH was lost on its way to Europe and cannot, therefore, be re-examined. From the figure of the head of Goniaphea it is conceivable that BOWDICH had hit upon a finch species in Madeira"

And about "Goniaphea" and "Pheucticus":
archive.org/stream/bulletinofnuttal051880nutt#page/98/mode/2up/search/goniaphea

[Deleted]

Hi!

Cool!

However, I do not know of any completely black bird with a blue head, especially no finch-like bird.

BTW: The book can be found here as well.:

www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/50561

[adzebill]

Yes, it's quite interesting, but it's not sure it was an Madeiran endemic (I hesitated to put this thread here or in cryptozoology). After a little more investigation, I found that maybe it was just an escaped Cyanocompsa grosbeak (Cardinalidae): the bill shape is very similar, and the male, at some light, can seem black(ish) with a blue head. Also, sometimes is kept as cage bird.
But then is striking that Bowdich, that there is every indication that could examine the bird at hand or, at least, very close (as is suggested by his description of the bill shape and the drawing of the head), didn't stated the plumage was dark blue (as it is in Cyanocompsa, and can readily be seen at close sight), but black at the body and azure at the head.
I don't know if the skull, rostrum or bill from the extinct finch of Madeira has been found yet, least if it has been compared with Bowdich's drawing and matched up with it (the little I could found of Pieper's article is not very conclusive).
It's a little ornithological mystery. Suggestive as it can be the hypothesis of Goniaphea leucocephala being an extinct finch, it's not the only one and, without further evidences, not even the more plausible.

[Melanie]

Chloris has priority over Carduelis



Sangster et. al: Taxonomic recommendations for British birds: seventh report In: Ibis (2011), 153, 883–892

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1474-919X.2011.01155.x/abstract