Fregilupus varius (Reunion Starling)

[Melanie]

aka Bourbon Crested Starling

Réunion Starling Fregilupus varius was endemic to Réunion (to France). It was described by most visitors to the island from 1669 onwards, and was apparently common as late as the 1830s. However, the last specimen was shot in 1837, and the species became extinct between 1850 and 1860, possibly due to an introduced disease, combined with changing population pressure due to the emancipation of slaves in 1848, forest fires, drought and deforestation. Nineteen stuffed specimens exist in the world.

Taxonomy Although normally considered a starling, Berger suggests that the species belonged with the Prionopidae.

Accidentally released in Mauritius in 1835, but did not survive long.

pic: www.encyclopedia.mu/Nature/Fauna/Birds/Extinct/BourbonCrestedStarling.htm

[another specialist]

www.redlist.org/search/details.php?species=8688

[Melanie]

[Melanie]

Crested starlingFregilupus varius(Boddaert, 1783)


Notwithstanding its appearance, this bird belongs to the starling family ( Sturnidae). It was found on the island of Réunion, called Bourbon up to 1870.

The male of the species is as big as a pigeon. On top of his head he has a crest directed forward. The brightly-coloured, 4 cm long beak is slightly downcurved. The head, neck and stomach are white. The wings and back are greyish-brown. The bird has long tarsi and fingers. The nails are hooked. The bird is noteworthy for its distinct sexual dimorphism. The female has the same plumage , but is smaller, with a short straight beak. Her crest is not as thick and is directed backwards.


Crested starling.


The creature lives in groups in humid forests in the island's hinterland and the mountain coastal forests. Colonists used guns or sticks to kill the bird because of the damage it caused to coffee plantations. It was also prized as a choice dish.

It feeds on grains, fruit and insects. Nothing is known about its reproduction.

The start of its decline, in 1830, coincided with increased farming activity and the disappearance of some of the forest cover. Human beings certainly played a role in the bird's decline, but rats that escaped from ships and a bird introduced to kill off locusts ( Acridotheres tristis) completed the work of destruction. Islands were particularly prone to these kinds of errors, and it is regrettable that human beings should have mismanaged island environments in this way in search of short-term gains.

Part of de Selys-Longchamps collection, the specimen stored at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, was found by a Corsican priest called Lombardi who served a Parish on the island of Réunion. The priest sent several skins to his nephew, who was studying at the University of Pisa. The nephew became a doctor, practising in Livorno. In 1844 he donated these birds to professor Paolo Savi, who was head of the University of Pisa's Natural History Museum. He offered one specimen to the baron de Selys-Longchamps, a highly esteemed Belgian naturalist of that time.

www.naturalis.nl/300pearls/dossiers/dossier.asp?xmlfile=B077.xml

[another specialist]

piclib.nhm.ac.uk/piclib/www/image.php?img=91814&cat=4&frm=ser&search=cat_4

[another specialist]

piclib.nhm.ac.uk/piclib/www/comp.php?img=81634&frm=med&search=extinct%20birds



piclib.nhm.ac.uk/piclib/www/comp.php?img=81629&frm=med&search=extinct%20birds

[another specialist]

Gap in nature

[sebbe67]

Bourbon Crested Starling
Like the Lord Howe Starling, the Bourbon Crested Starling or huppe Fregilupus varius ( Boddaert, 1783) disappeared in a relatively short period. This is illustrated by letters of a certain Mr. de Cortimoy, who, in the early 19th century, spent his childhood on the island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. De Cortimoy was very familiar with the endemic Bourbon Crested Starling. From one of his letters we known that as a child he killed dozens of them. The Bourbon Crested Starling was a ground dweller and could easily be hit with a stick. De Cortimoy also kept birds in a cage feeding them bananas, potatoes and cabbage. When he returned to Réunion after a ten-year stay in Paris, he found that the starling had vanished. About 25 specimens of this beautiful starling are in museums world-wide. This is a surprisingly high number for an island species which became extinct at such an early date. The skin in the National Museum of Natural History was part of the collection of C.J. Temminck and was therefore collected prior to 1820.

[another specialist]

source for above?

[another specialist]

Red List Category & Criteria EX ver 3.1 (2001)
Year Assessed 2004
Assessor/s BirdLife International
Evaluator/s Stattersfield, A. (BirdLife International Red List Authority) & Brooks, T. (Conservation International)
Justification Réunion Starling Fregilupus varius was endemic to Réunion (to France). It was described by most visitors to the island from 1669 onwards, and was apparently common as late as the 1830s. However, the last specimen was shot in 1837, and the species became extinct between 1850 and 1860, possibly due to an introduced disease, combined with changing population pressure due to the emancipation of slaves in 1848, forest fires, drought and deforestation. Nineteen specimens survive. Taxonomy Although normally considered a starling, Berger suggests that the species belonged with the Prionopidae.
History 1988 - Extinct (BirdLife International 2004)
1994 - Extinct (Groombridge 1994)
2000 - Extinct (BirdLife International 2000)

www.redlist.org/search/details.php?species=8688

[another specialist]

www.birdlife.org/datazone/search/species_search.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=6805&m=0

[Melanie]

Here is one of the most comprehensive papers which i have found so far about the Reunion Starling.

digitallibrary.amnh.org/dspace/bitstream/2246/1254/1/B113a03.pdf

It has a size of 42 mb so it is better to save it first (right mouse click - save target as)

[Melanie]

Fregilupus, THE BOURBON CRESTED STARLING,
was a monotypic genus endemic on the
Mascarene Islands, perhaps only on R&-
union. It probably has been extinct since
about 1854 (Murie, 1874, p. 474). Murie
summarized available information on this
genus as of 1874, Milne-Edwards and Oustalet
(1893, p. 205) discussed certain anatomical
features, Amadon (1943) commented on
its relationships, and Hachisuka (1953, pp.
213-221) presented a colored plate of the
bird and discussed extant specimens. Hachisuka
listed two alcoholic specimens and 21 or
22 skins, some of which may have been destroyed
in France during World War II. Both
spirit specimens are in the United States: one
(incomplete and partly dissected; M. R. Miller,
1941) is in the Museum of Comparative
Zoology of Harvard College, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, and one is in the American
Museum of Natural History in New York. It
is the latter specimen, collected by Desjardins
in 1839, and received from Paris as an exchange,
which served as the basis for the present
paper. Though the plumage was badly
discolored and most of the remiges and rectrices
were broken, the muscles were, surprisingly,
in excellent condition.
That the genus Fregilupus presents an interesting
taxonomic problem is attested by
the fact that it has been variously thought to
show affinities with the Coraciidae, Upupidae,
Paradisaeidae, Corvidae, Vangidae, and
Sturnidae. In recent years, however, the only
families seriously considered for Fregilupus
have been the Sturnidae and the Vangidae.
Murie (1874) illustrated and discussed the
skeleton of Fregilupus and concluded that it
was not closely related to the "Hoopoes, nor
to the Fregiline section of the Crows," but
that it "hails close proximity to Pastor" and
is less closely related to Sturnus (see also
Murie, 1873, p. 200). Sclater (1930, p. 669)
and Amadon (1943) placed Fregilupus in the
Sturnidae.
The genus Aplonis contains 19 species and
ranges widely through coastal Bengal, the
Malay Peninsula, East Indies, northern
Australia, the Philippines, and most of Polynesia
(Amadon, 1943, p. 8). Artamella is one
of nine or 10 genera assigned to the family
231
Vangidae, which is endemic to Madagascar.
Unfortunately, little is known about the life
history of the Vangidae, and there are apparently
no reliable data on the breeding biology
of Fregilupus.

source:
digitallibrary.amnh.org/dspace/bitstream/2246/1254/1/B113a03.pdf

[sebastian]

triptych.brynmawr.edu/cdm4/results.php?CISOOP1=any&CISOFIELD1=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOROOT=/castle&CISOBOX1=27

[another specialist]

floreboquocumbeferar.blogs-de-voyage.fr/album/les_animaux_disparus/PICT0093.html

[Carlos]

Réunion Starling Fregilupus varius (Boddaert, 1783)

RMNH 110.050: Réunion (on label) / Bourbon (on pedestal). Cabinet Temminck.

The Réunion Starling disappeared in a relatively short period. This is illustrated by letters of a certain Mr. de Cortimoy, who in the early 19th century, spent his childhood on the island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. De Cortimoy was very familiar with the endemic Réunion Starling. From one of his letters we known that as a child he killed dozens of them. The Réunion Starling was a ground dweller and could easily be hit with a stick. De Cortimoy also kept birds in a cage feeding them bananas, potatoes and cabbage. When he returned to Réunion after a ten-year stay in Paris, he found that the starling had vanished.

About 20 specimens of this beautiful starling are in museums all over the world. This is a surprisingly high number for an island species which became extinct at such an early date. The skin in Naturalis was part of the collection of C.J. Temminck and was therefore collected prior to 1820.

ip30.eti.uva.nl/naturalis/detail?lang=uk&id=31

[another specialist]

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Fregilupus-varius-Berjeau.jpg

[another specialist]

Extinct birds : an attempt to unite in one volume a short account of those birds which have become extinct in historical times : that is, within the last six or seven hundred years : to which are added a few which still exist, but are on the verge of extinction (1907)

[Melanie]

An account about the Réunion Starling by Graham Renshaw in The Zoologist (1905)

www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40894946#page/492/mode/1up

[koeiyabe]

"Living Things Vanished from the Earth (in Japanese)" by Toshio Inomata (1993)

from above to below
with Reunion Starling and Mascarene Parrot
Newton's Parakeet, Red Rail (wrong illustration) or Sauzier's wood Rail, Mauritius Blue Pigeon
Antanartia borbonica mauritiana, Salamis augustina vinsoni, Libythea cinyras