| Bermuda towhee Temporal range: Pleistocene-Holocene | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Passerellidae |
| Genus: | Pipilo |
| Species: | †P. naufragus |
| Binomial name | |
| †Pipilo naufragus | |
 | |
| Synonyms | |
Pipilo sp. undescribed Olson & Hearty, 2009 | |
The Bermuda towhee (Pipilo naufragus) is an extinct bird of the towhee genus Pipilo that was endemic to Bermuda.
It was a large member of the genus and closely related to the eastern towhee. The scientific description was in 2012, based on Pleistocene and Holocene remains from Quaternary cave deposits. 38 bones from at least five individuals are known.
An old travel report by William Strachey who was shipwrecked on Bermuda from 1609 to 1610 might refer to that species. He wrote in 1625:
Sparrowes fat and plumpe like a Bunting, bigger then ours. [2]
The exact cause for its extinction is unknown, but it most definitely became extinct soon after human arrival to Bermuda in the early 1600s. Its decline is thought to have been accelerated by predation from invasive species.
The spotted towhee is a large New World sparrow. The taxonomy of the towhees has been debated in recent decades, and until 1995 this bird and the eastern towhee were considered a single species, the rufous-sided towhee. Another outdated name for the spotted towhee is the Oregon towhee. The call may be harsher and more varied than for the eastern towhee.
A towhee is any one of a number of species of birds in the genus Pipilo or Melozone within the family Passerellidae.
The Kerguelen petrel is a small slate-grey seabird in the family Procellariidae. It is the only species placed in the genus Aphrodroma. It is a pelagic, circumpolar seabird of the Southern Ocean. It breeds on islands in the southern Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
The Ascension crake is an extinct flightless bird that previously lived on Ascension Island in the South Atlantic Ocean. Like many other flightless birds on isolated islands, it was a rail. It was declared extinct by Groombridge in 1994; BirdLife International confirmed this in 2000 and 2004.
The genus Cathartes includes medium-sized to large carrion-feeding birds in the New World vulture (Cathartidae) family. The three extant species currently classified in this genus occur widely in the Americas. There is one extinct species known from the Quaternary of Cuba.
Ciridops is an extinct genus of Hawaiian honeycreeper species that occurred in prehistoric and historic times on the Hawaiian islands of Hawaii, Molokai, Kauai and Oahu. This genus was created in 1892 by Alfred Newton in an article published by the journal Nature on the basis of the ʻula-ʻai-hawane, which was named Fringilla anna by Sanford B. Dole in 1879.
The New Caledonian gallinule was a species of bird in the family Rallidae. It was endemic to New Caledonia and probably became extinct due to hunting, habitat loss and the presence of invasive species following human settlement of the island. However a passage from an 1860 article refers to birds the size of turkeys being present in marshy areas of New Caledone, suggesting that it may have survived into historic times. The native name n'dino is thought to refer to this bird.
The Bermuda night heron is an extinct heron species from Bermuda.
Buteogallus borrasi is a species of giant buteonine hawk which went extinct in the early Holocene. Formerly endemic to Cuba, this huge bird of prey probably fed on Pleistocene megafauna. Little is known about its appearance and ecology, so no common name has been given.
The pile-builder megapode is an extinct species of megapode. The subfossil remains were found by Jean-Christophe Balouet and Storrs L. Olson in the Pindai Caves of New Caledonia. Its remains have also been found on Tonga.
Titanohierax gloveralleni, also known as the Bahama eagle, is a large species of extinct hawk from the Late Quaternary of the Caribbean. Remains of the animal have been found on multiple islands in The Bahamas. The animal is known from a handful of bones found across multiple islands, including a tarsometatarsus, partial metacarpal, and nearly complete right ulna. The animal was described based off the former two by Alexander Wetmore in 1937, with all other currently referred material being assigned by Storrs Olson and colleagues in 1982.
True Reportory is the short-title of a 24,000 word early American colonial narrative, A true reportory of the wracke, and redemption of Sir Thomas Gates Knight; vpon, and from the Ilands of the Bermudas: his comming to Virginia, and the estate of that Colonie then, and after, vnder the gouernment of the Lord La Warre, Iuly 15. 1610. The author William Strachey was a passenger on the Sea Venture, the flagship of the supply fleet that sailed to the English colony of Virginia from Plymouth in June 1609. During a hurricane it wrecked off the coast of Bermuda, where the survivors built two pinnaces, Patience and Deliverance, to continue the journey. They arrived in Jamestown in May 1610 and found the colony suffering from famine and Indian attacks that had reduced the 600 colonists to fewer than 70. True Reportory is Strachey's account of these incidents, first published in 1625 in an anthology of new world colonial literature assembled by Samuel Purchas.
The Jamaican ibis, Jamaican flightless ibis or clubbed-wing ibis is an extinct bird species of the ibis subfamily uniquely characterized by its club-like wings. It is the only species in the genus Xenicibis, and one of only two flightless ibis genera, the other being the genus Apteribis which was endemic to Hawaii's islands of Maui Nui.
The New Caledonian ground dove is a large, extinct species of Pampusana ground dove in the pigeon family, and the largest member of its genus. It was endemic to the island of New Caledonia in Melanesia in the south-west Pacific region. It was described from subfossil bones found at the Pindai Caves paleontological site on the west coast of Grande Terre. The specific epithet refers to the slender and elongated tarsometatarsus, or lower leg bone, of the species.
Gymnogyps varonai, sometimes called the Cuban condor, is an extinct species of large New World vulture in the family Cathartidae. G. varonai is related to the living California condor, G. californianus and the extinct G. kofordi, either one of which it may have evolved from. The species is solely known from fossils found in the late Pleistocene to early Holocene tar seep deposits in Cuba. G. varonai may have preyed upon carcasses from large mammals such as ground sloths.
The Bermuda flicker is an extinct woodpecker from the genus Colaptes. It was confined to Bermuda and is known only by fossil remains dated to the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene. However, an old travel report by explorer Captain John Smith from the 17th century may also refer to this species.
The Cuban kestrel was a species of small falcon in the family Falconidae that was formerly endemic to the island of Cuba. It was described from fossil remains from late Quaternary deposits from several sites throughout the island.
