| Micronesian megapode | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Galliformes |
| Family: | Megapodiidae |
| Genus: | Megapodius |
| Species: | M. laperouse |
| Binomial name | |
| Megapodius laperouse Gaimard, 1823 | |
| Subspecies | |
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The Micronesian megapode or Micronesian scrubfowl (Megapodius laperouse) is an endangered megapode which inhabits islands of the Western Pacific Ocean.
The Micronesian megapode is a stocky medium-sized bird that is mostly dark brownish-black in appearance. Its head is paler than its body, and it has a pale grey crest, a yellow bill, and large dull-yellow legs and feet.
It is 38 cm. Medium-sized, dark megapode with paler head. Mostly brownish-black with short pale grey crest. Yellow bill, red facial skin showing through thin feathers. Unusually large, dingy yellow legs and feet. Similar spp. Could be confused with dark morphs of Red Junglefowl Gallus gallus (or feral domestic stock). . [2]
Its call is a loud "keek", song often a duet with one bird beginning a rising and accelerating "keek-keek-keek-keek"- etc. culminating in a loud "kee-keer-kew" (Palau) or "keek-keer-keet" (Marianas), the other answering with a rising cackle that slows near the end. . [2]
The Micronesian scrubfowl (Megapodius laperouse) is named after the French explorer Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse.
The bird is still to be found in the Marianas. It was previously recorded on the islands of Asuncion, Agrihan, Pagan, Aguijan and Alamagan. A remnant population of a few birds may persist on Saipan and Tinian, and it is extinct on Rota and Guam. Small groups of the birds frequent the thickets and scrublands of low outlying islands in the region; however, when present on larger islands, they may also be found inland on higher ground.
Its habitat is thick forest and it is omnivorous, eating a large variety of foods from the forest floor.
Often shy and secretive, but becomes relatively tame on inhabited islands where protected from disturbance. Visits nesting mounds several times a day. [2] The birds are known to creep around in the shadows of small trees and are not capable of flying for long distances. However they are accomplished runners and would be very hard to catch.
The Micronesian scrubfowl and some other megapodes are the only birds known to incubate their eggs using volcanic heat. [3]
During the breeding season, just after the southeast monsoon comes in, the females make large mounds of debris in which to lay their eggs. Some individual females will lay their eggs together in the same mound. However the females do not use the same mound more than once and are swapped with different females. When the eggs hatch after one to two months later, the chicks will feed on grass shoots and insects.
The species is currently classified as near threatened because it has a very small range, restricted to isolated undisturbed offshore islets. Megapodius laperouse occurs on Palau and the Northern Mariana Islands, and is extirpated from Guam. [2]
The introduction of dogs, cats, pigs, and rats is believed to have led to the decline of this species throughout most of the islands. Along with increased predation, during the Japanese occupation of the islands of Saipan and Tinian, most of the vegetation of both islands was burnt and replaced by large sugar cane farms.
It is estimated that only 2000–2500 of the species remain. It can be found in the island nation of Palau, and undisturbed islands of the Northern Marianas chain, with several hundred on Sarigan. Reportedly, a small population has recently been reintroduced on Saipan.
The bird appears on the 2010 IUCN Red List Category (as evaluated by BirdLife International - the official Red List Authority for birds for IUCN). The species qualifies as "Endangered" because it has a very small range, restricted to isolated undisturbed offshore islets, with few birds elsewhere. Given the multiple threats across its range, it is likely to be suffering from a continuing decline. [2]
It seems that the only way for the species to be safe is to protect a few small islands and release a small population of megapodes there. That way, a safe population is secured. On the larger and higher islands, an increase of people and introduced pests will sooner or later destroy any megapode populations.
The Marianas Island megapode or Megapodius laperouse laperouse is the nominate subspecies of the Micronesian megapode found in the Mariana Islands. It is rare, localised and in danger of disappearing.
The megapodes, also known as incubator birds or mound-builders, are stocky, medium-large, chicken-like birds with small heads and large feet in the family Megapodiidae. Their name literally means "large foot" and is a reference to the heavy legs and feet typical of these terrestrial birds. All are browsers, and all except the malleefowl occupy wooded habitats. Most are brown or black in color. Megapodes are superprecocial, hatching from their eggs in the most mature condition of any bird. They hatch with open eyes, bodily coordination and strength, full wing feathers, and downy body feathers, and are able to run, pursue prey and, in some species, fly on the day they hatch.
Guguan is an island in the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The island is currently uninhabited. Guguan is located 30 nautical miles (56 km) south from Alamagan and 250 nautical miles (463 km) north from Saipan, and is 67 nautical miles (124 km) northeast from Sarigan.
Aguiguan, alternatively it is called Goat Island, is a small bean-shaped uninhabited coralline island in the Northern Mariana Islands chain in the Pacific Ocean. It is situated 8 kilometers (5.0 mi) south-west of Tinian, from which it is separated by the Tinian Channel. Aguiguan and neighboring Tinian Island together form Tinian Municipality, one of the four main political divisions that comprise the Northern Marianas. The island is inhabited by wild goats and the last known habitat of a rare Pacific bat, as well as many species of birds. During WW2 a Japanese garrison was on the island, which surrendered at the end of the War without a battle. Access to the island is inhibited by the lack of a natural harbor.
The Nicobar megapode or Nicobar scrubfowl is a megapode found in some of the Nicobar Islands (India). Like other megapode relatives, it builds a large mound nest with soil and vegetation, with the eggs hatched by the heat produced by decomposition. Newly hatched chicks climb out of the loose soil of the mound and being fully feathered are capable of flight. The Nicobar Islands are on the edge of the distribution of megapodes, well separated from the nearest ranges of other megapode species. Being restricted to small islands and threatened by hunting, the species is vulnerable to extinction. The 2004 tsunami is believed to have wiped out populations on some islands and reduced populations on several others.
The dusky megapode, also known as dusky scrubfowl or common megapode, is a medium-sized, approximately 41 cm long, blackish bird with a short pointed crest, bare red facial skin, dark legs, brown irises, and a dark brown and yellow bill. The male and female are similar. This terrestrial species lives in forests and swamps, including mangroves, of the Maluku and Raja Ampat Islands in Indonesia. Like other megapodes, it lays its eggs in a mound made from earth mixed with leaves, sand, gravel, and sticks, which can be as large as 11 m (36 ft) in diameter and stand nearly 5 m (16 ft) tall.
The Mariana fruit dove or Marianas fruit dove, totot on Guam or Paluman totut in Northern Marianas Islands, also known as mwee’mwe in the Carolinian language, is a small, up to 24 cm long, green fruit dove native and endemic to Guam and the Northern Marianas Islands in the Pacific. It has a red forehead; greyish head, back and breast; and yellow belly patch and undertail coverts.
The orange-footed scrubfowl, also known as orange-footed megapode or just scrubfowl, is a small megapode of the family Megapodiidae native to many islands in the Lesser Sunda Islands as well as southern New Guinea and northern Australia.
The Moluccan megapode, also known as Wallace's scrubfowl, Moluccan scrubfowl or painted megapode, is a small, approximately 31 cm long, olive-brown megapode. The genus Eulipoa is monotypic, but the Moluccan megapode is sometimes placed in Megapodius instead. Both sexes are similar with an olive-brown plumage, bluish-grey below, white undertail coverts, brown iris, bare pink facial skin, bluish-yellow bill and dark olive legs. There are light grey stripes on reddish-maroon feathers on its back. The young has brownish plumage, a black bill, legs and hazel iris.
The Sula megapode or Sula scrubfowl is a species of bird in the family Megapodiidae. It is found only in the Banggai and Sula Islands between Sulawesi and the Maluku Islands in Indonesia, where its habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forest, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, subtropical or tropical mangrove forest, and subtropical or tropical moist shrubland. It is threatened by habitat destruction.
The Melanesian scrubfowl or Melanesian megapode is a megapode species that is endemic to islands within Melanesia. The Melanesian scrubfowl has a unique strategy of egg incubation in which it relies on environmental heat sources. This bird species is culturally important for Indigenous peoples in Melanesia.
The Biak scrubfowl or Biak megapode is a species of bird in the family Megapodiidae. It is found only on the islands of Biak, Mios Korwar, Numfor, Manim and Mios Num in the West Papua region of Indonesia.
The Vanuatu megapode or Vanuatu scrubfowl is a species of bird in the family Megapodiidae. It was formerly known as the New Hebrides scrubfowl. It is found only in Vanuatu. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest. The species is threatened by habitat loss and egg collecting.
The Tongan megapode is a species of bird in the megapode family, Megapodiidae, currently endemic to Tonga. The species is also known as the Polynesian megapode, and as the Niuafo'ou megapode after the island of Niuafo'ou to which it was restricted for many years. The specific epithet honours British consul William Thomas Pritchard.
The golden white-eye is a species of bird in the white-eye family, Zosteropidae. It is the only species within the genus Cleptornis. The golden white-eye was once considered to be a honeyeater in the family Meliphagidae and although it is now known to be a white-eye, its position within that family is still uncertain. The species is restricted to the islands of Saipan and Aguijan in the Northern Mariana Islands, where it is sympatric and competes with the related bridled white-eye. The golden white-eye has golden plumage and a pale eye-ring. It feeds on insects, fruit, and nectar and forages in pairs or small family groups. The bird is monogamous and lays two eggs in a small cup nest.
The Micronesian myzomela is a species of bird in the honeyeater family Meliphagidae. The species forms a superspecies with a number of related and similar looking island and mainland myzomelas across the Pacific and Australasia. It in turn is composed of seven insular subspecies.
The scrubfowl are the genus Megapodius of the mound-builders, stocky, medium-large chicken-like birds with small heads and large feet in the family Megapodiidae. They are found from south-east Asia to north Australia and islands in the west Pacific.
The Tanimbar megapode or Tanimbar scrubfowl is a small megapode endemic to the Tanimbar Islands of Indonesia. It is sometimes considered to be a subspecies of the orange-footed scrubfowl, Megapodius reinwardt.
The Palau tropical moist forests is a tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests ecoregion in Micronesia. It encompasses the nation of Palau.
The Marianas tropical dry forests is a tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests ecoregion on the Marianas Islands in the western Pacific Ocean.
