Lalage leucopyga ssp. leucopyga (Norfolk Island Triller)

[another specialist]

Lalage leucopyga (Long-tailed Triller) was endemic to Norfolk Island, Australia from where it had become extinct by 1962. It may be a valid species but is usually treated as conspecific with the extant Long-billed Triller L. montrosieri; the former name has priority and so if considered conspecific the species is named L. leucopyga.
References: 1. Christidis and Boles (1994). 2. Garnett (1993). 3. Knox and Walters (1994). 4. Stattersfield et al. (1998).

www.birdlife.net/datazone/species/terms/extinct.html

[another specialist]

TAXON SUMMARY
Long-tailed Triller (Norfolk Island)

1 Family Campephagidae

2 Scientific Name Lalage leucopyga leucopyga (Gould, 1838)

3 Common Name Long-tailed Triller (Norfolk Island)

4 Conservation status Extinct

5 Reasons for listing
There have been no records of this subspecies since
1942.

6 Infraspecific taxa
Other subspecies of the Long-tailed Triller occur on
New Caledonia, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.

7 Past range and abundance
This subspecies of Long-tailed Triller was endemic to
Norfolk I. It was abundant in 1941, but has not been
seen since 1942 (Schodde et al., 1983).

8 Ecology
The Long-tailed Triller probably occupied all wooded
habitats on the island.

9 Reasons for extinction
The subspecies almost certainly became extinct as result
of predation by the Black Rat Rattus rattus. The
rats arrived in the mid-1940s (Robinson, 1988) and
triller has not been seen since 1942. The disappearance
also coincided with construction of the international
airport in the centre of the island which necessitated
clearing a large area of remnant native forest
(M. Christian).

www.deh.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/action/birds2000/pubs/long-tailed-triller.pdf

[sebbe67]

Norfolk long-tailed Triller
From the records of a botanist

Norfolk Island is nothing but a small dot on the map of the South Pacific. Only 35 km2 , the island is situated 800 km northwest of New Zealand. Surprisingly, it already drew the attention of naturalists in the early 19th century. Much of our knowledge of its fauna originates from Ferdinand Lucas Bauer, who worked on Norfolk in 1804 and 1805. Although he was a botanist he also collected animals for the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna.


Norfolk Long-tailed Triller


Not worth eating
Three subspecies of birds endemic to Norfolk have become extinct. The Norfolk Island Kereru and Norfolk Island Kaka vanished in the 19th century. Besides colonization and deforestation, these birds had to cope with the local inhabitants, who hunted them for food. The Norfolk long-tailed Triller Lalage leucopyga leucopyga( Gould, 1838) apparently was not edible or at least too small to be worthwhile. It survived well into the 20th century. It finally disappeared in 1962. Why, we do not know. Long-tailed Trillers live on various islands in the south-west Pacific. When John Gould described the species for the first time, he was under the impression that it had been collected in New South Wales in mainland Australia. However, the specimen on which he based his description in fact originated from Norfolk. Very little is known about the life history of the Norfolk race. Presumably it was similar to that of the other races of the Long-tailed Triller in the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia or Vanuatu. The birds lived in parks or at the forest-edge where they meticulously searched the trees for insects.

The museum collection
The specimen in the National Museum of Natural History was purchased in 1863 from Maison Verreaux in Paris. We know of no preserved skins other than those in the museums of Vienna and Tring.


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www.naturalis.nl/300pearls/

[another specialist]

from the above website

[sebbe67]

collections.tepapa.govt.nz/welcome.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fobjectsearch.aspx (found by adzebill)

[another specialist]

1c 146 013 000 Scarlet Robin Petroica multicolor
7c 125 061 000 Long-tailed Triller Lalage leucopyga
10c 78 165 000 Morepork Ninox novaeseelandiae
25c 0 6700 Norfolk Island Kaka Nestor productus

www.birdtheme.org/country/norfolk.html

[Melanie]

Account by Ernst Mayr and S. Dillon Ripley about the Norfolk long-tailed Triller (1941)

Birds collected during the Whitney South Sea Expedition. 44, Notes on the genus Lalage Boie. American Museum novitates ; no. 1116
Mayr, Ernst, 1904-; Ripley, Sidney Dillon, 1913-; Whitney South Sea Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History (1920-1941)

digitallibrary.amnh.org/dspace/handle/2246/4791

[Melanie]

John Gould's scientific description (1838):

Descriptions of new species of Australian Birds. Principally in the author's collection, with characters of several new genera, p. 2 In: "A synopsis of the birds of Australia, and the adjacent islands. Part IV." (1838) London, John Gould, 20, Broad Street, Golden Square

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