Aplonis ulietensis (Raiatea Starling)

[sebbe67]

Turdus ulietensis

is known only from a description by Latham in 17891 and a painting by Forster (now in the British Museum), based on a specimen collected on 1 Jun 17742 both from Raiatea in the Society Islands, French Polynesia (to France)1.

[Deleted]

Hi !

This may have been a Aplonis-Starling.

[another specialist]

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

[dysmorodrepanis]

noisi,

do you have any citation for the Aplonis claim?

(Other than that it appears on the Museum of Natural History Image Library page here piclib.nhm.ac.uk/piclib/www/image.php?img=50413&frm=ser&search=forster)

I started trying to find out what the hell this bird was years ago. The description by Latham suggested it possibly was a honeycreeper. I checked the synonymy of honeycreepers in Peters, and some species were actually described as Turdus, when Linnean taxonomy was in its early days. But from a biogeographical standpoint, this makes not much sense, as Pacific honeyeaters look differently; they are much larger birds with longer, stronger beaks:
Gymnomyza samoensis, a typical Polynesian honeyeater: www.bird-stamps.org/images/stamps/samoa/0289a.jpg

Seeing this bird as an Aplonis makes much more sense.

Still, the following points beg attention:

Latham: Bill reddish pearl-colour, notched at the tip.

Forster: Tibiae with seven scutes (the 'scales' on the front of the 'legs' - actually the tarsometatarsi, the fused ankle and feet bones).
Tongue bifid at the tip and ciliated.
(both from Greenway)

The tongue has been the main reason to suggets this bird to have been a honeyeater.

However, Aplonis take nectar at least occasionally. The 'soft, fluting' voice is also compatible - while Aplonis frequently have harsher voices, Polynesian honeyeaters do too, or they have very striking, bell-like or wailing vocalizations.
About the structure of the tongue and bill and on the scutation of the tarsi I cannot say anything.

But the color of the bill makes no sense. All Pacific Aplonis have black(ish) bills.

It would have been a bird essentially similar to Aplonis atrifusca from Samoa, but more similar in size to A. cinerascens from Rarotonga and with a pinkish bill. Its closest relatives would have been these 2 birds, A. mavornata (which was erroneously considered to be this bird by R.B. Sharpe), and perhaps A. tabuensis which occurs as far as Niue.
Aplonis cinerascens: animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/resources/grzimek_birds/Sturnidae/Aplonis_cinerascens.jpg
And of course A. diluvialis from Huahine - the island next to Raiatea... actually, if this one turns out to be an Aplonis, A. diluvialis would have been the sister taxon!

I've mailed to David Steadman regarding that matter.

In the meantime, has anyone ever read this:
David W. Steadman:
A new species of starling (Sturnidae, Aplonis) from an archaeological site on Huahine, Society Islands
Notornis 36 (1989): 161-169
(description of A. diluvialis)

"Turdus" ulietensis became extinct between 1774 and 1850.

[another specialist]

do you have any citation for the Aplonis claim?

(Other than that it appears on the Museum of Natural History Image Library page here piclib.nhm.ac.uk/piclib/www/image.php?img=50413&frm=ser&search=forster)

by dysmorodrepanis

Image reference: 5146

Title: Aplonis sp. Starling

Description:
Ff. 146. Watercolour painting by George Forster annotated 'Turdus badius' and made during Captain James Cook's second voyage to explore the southern continent (1772-75).

[Deleted]

Hi !

'Turdus' ulietensis, painted by using the original description:



I just think that it was an member of the genus Aplonis because that would make most sense.

Bye Alex

[Melanie]

There is a painting in "The Doomsday Book of Animals". And if i compare it with the paintings in that thread there is a little difference. For example the head of the bird in the book is more reddish.

[another specialist]

nice pic noisi but what melanie says is true if you go by "The Doomsday Book of Animals". but you do see alot of variations based on the original description.

[dysmorodrepanis]

Latham's original description of 1789:
"Size of the song thrush, length eight inches and a half. Bill an inch and a quarter, notched at the tip, and of a reddish-pearl color; general color of the plumage rufous brown; quills edged with dusky; tail rounded in shape and dusky; legs dusky black
Inhabits Ulieta [old name of Raiatea]. In collection of Sir Joseph Banks."

Forster's description, published 1844:
"Head dusky marked with brown. Above dusky, all the feathers edged with reddish brown; wings dusky, the primaries edged with brown, as are the wing coverts and the tail feathers. Below ochraceous. Iris dark yellow. Twelve tail feathers. Tibiae compressed and with seven scutes. Tongue bifid at tip and ciliated."
(Both from Greenway 2nd ed.)

Alex, you could make the head a bit more contrasting... only a bit, as in the original painting. The feather edges seem to be a lighter color on the head, maybe the color of the belly.

Apart from that... how do you DO that? It's really, REALLY good!

[Deleted]

Hi and Thank You all !

Well, I had only a very small picture (the original) in 'Extinct Birds' and a description in another book.

I will 'make' a new 'Bay thrush' as soon as possible, still I have not drawn the Maupiti Monarch because I have no plant which is good enough for this bird. (It is now sitting on a twig of Celtis pacifica, but I do not know if this plant occures or occured on Maupiti. But I think it does.) And the next 'Bay Thrush' will also sit on a plant which occures on Raiatea. Also I must make a picture of two birds of Dysmorodrepanis (a real phantastic bird ) together with Zanthoxylum hawaiiense. The most time I must use for searching plants that fit with (right word ?) the birds.

Bye Alex

[Melanie]

[Melanie]

Johann Friedrich Gmelin (1748-1804) a German naturalist, botanist and entomologist listed it in his 1789 edition of Linnaeus's "Systema Naturae" with the binomial name of Aplonis ulietensis.

www.captaincooksociety.com/ccsu2111.htm#109

[Deleted]

Hi!

May this bird have survived until 1834?

"Some of the land birds which inhabit the more interior and elevated woods have a varied and gaudy plumage; while others, with a more sombre garment, possess a melodious voice, not unlike that of our thrush or blackbird; but neither kind is sufficiently numerous to repay the exertions of the sportsman or ornithologist."

This is an extract from Chapter IV (dealing with Ra'iatea's birdlife) from: 'Frederick Debell Bennett: Narrative of a Whaling Voyage round the globe, from the year 1833 to 1836. Comprising Sketches of Polynesia, California, the Indian Archipelago, etc. with an account of southern whales, the sperm whale fishery, and the natural history of the climates visited. London, Richard Bentley 1840'

[koeiyabe]

far left. Is its illustration accurate?
Raiatea Thrush in Japanese.
"Living Things Vanished from the Earth (in Japanese)" by Toshio Inomata (1993)
with Tahiti rail, Tahitian Sandpiper, Choiseul Pigeon, and Samoan Moorhen (clockwise).

[koeiyabe]

Can you help to identify the illustration?

This illustration doesn't have any descriptions. Simply written that "Raiatea Thrush. Extinct in 1774" I guess it is "Bay Thrush" or "Raiatea Reed Warbler."
If it is Bay Thrush, the belly feather color should be dark. I believe the illustration may be wrong.
If it is Raiatea Reed Warbler, the feather is relatively similar to the illustration.

[Melanie]

Raiatea Reed Warbler became extinct in the 19th century.

[koeiyabe]

So the illustration is incorrect? Thank for your help.

[Melanie]

Scientific Name: Aplonis ulietensis
Species Authority: (Gmelin, 1788 )
Common Name(s):
English – Raiatea Starling, Bay Thrush, Bay Starling
Synonym(s):
Turdus ulietensis Gmelin, 1788
Taxonomic Source(s): del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A., Fishpool, L.D.C., Boesman, P. and Kirwan, G.M. 2016. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 2: Passerines. Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.
Assessment Information [top]
Red List Category & Criteria: Extinct ver 3.1
Year Published: 2016
Date Assessed: 2016-10-01
Assessor(s): BirdLife International
Reviewer(s): Butchart, S. & Symes, A.
Facilitator/Compiler(s): Symes, A.
Justification:
This Extinct species is known only from a 1774 painting of the type specimen, contemporary descriptions and a few field notes. It occurred on Raiatea (French Polynesia).
Previously published Red List assessments:

2008 – Not Recognized (NR)
2004 – Not Recognized (NR)
2000 – Not Recognized (NR)
1994 – Not Recognized (NR)
1988 – Not Recognized (NR)

Geographic Range [top]
Range Description: This Extinct species is known only from a 1774 painting of the type specimen, contemporary descriptions and a few field notes. It occurred on Raiatea (French Polynesia). An expedition to the island in 1850 failed to find the species, and it likely became extinct between 1774-1850 following the arrival of rats on the island.
Countries occurrence:
Regionally extinct:
French Polynesia
Additional data:
Range Map: Click here to open the map viewer and explore range.
Population [top]
Population: Any population appears to have been lost prior to 1850.
Additional data:
Habitat and Ecology [top]
Habitat and Ecology: Unknown, though referred to as occurring in 'thickets' on the island.
Systems: Terrestrial
Threats [top]
Major Threat(s): It is assumed that the arrival of introduced species such as rats were the cause of the extinction of the species.
Citation: BirdLife International. 2016. Aplonis ulietensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T22734867A104350549. Downloaded on 09 December 2016.

www.iucnredlist.org/details/22734867/0