Wednesday, April 4, 2012

>Gerygone insularis (Lord Howe Gerygone)

Lord Howe Gerygone

Lord Howe Gerygone
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Aves
Order:Passeriformes
Family:Acanthizidae
Genus:Gerygone
Species:G. insularis
Binomial name
Gerygone insularis
Ramsay, 1879
Synonyms
  • Royigerygone insularis
  • Pseudogerygone insularis
The Lord Howe Gerygone (Gerygone insularis), also known as the Lord Howe Island Flyeater or, locally, as the "Rain-bird" or "Pop-goes-the-weasel", was a small bird in theAcanthizidae family which was endemic to Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea, part of New South WalesAustralia. It was quite small, brown and greyish; its head was brown apart from a pale grey eye-ring and a grey throat and chin, many parts of the animal varied to the colour of yellow, this being apparent in its bright yellow belly. A pregnant Lord Howe Gerygone would lay a clutch of three pink-tinged, brown-speckled eggs in a domed nest made up of dry bark, fibres, leaves, grass, moss and wool wrapped together with a spider web suspended from a twig. It was abundant in the forests of the island until the early 20th century. There have been no records of the species since 1928 and it is considered to be extinct. Its extinction is almost certainly due to predation by Black Rats which were accidentally introduced to the island in 1918 following the shipwreck of the SSMakambo there.

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