Semper's warbler | |
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Illustration by Joseph Smit | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Parulidae |
Genus: | Leucopeza Sclater, PL, 1876 |
Species: | L. semperi |
Binomial name | |
Leucopeza semperi Sclater, PL, 1876 [2] | |
Semper's warbler (Leucopeza semperi) is an extremely rare or possibly extinct New World warbler which is endemic to Saint Lucia, part of the Lesser Antilles.
The common name and Latin binomial name commemorate Reverend John E. Semper, an amateur ornithologist who lived in St. Lucia. [3]
The bird is about 14.5 centimetres in length. The plumage of the adults is dark gray at the upperparts and greyish white at the underparts. The immatures are brownish-grey above and have buffish underparts, and the long legs are pale yellow. The call consists of tuck-tick-tick-tuck noises.
Semper's warbler is endemic to Saint Lucia. [4] It lives in the undisturbed undergrowth of lower montane rainforests and elfin woodlands. [4]
Nothing is known about its ecology but it is probably a ground-nesting bird.
It was rather abundant in the 19th century but there are only a few reports of this species in the 20th century. According to West Indian ornithologist James Bond, it was last collected on the summit of Piton Flores in 1934, another report was from March 1947 where it was sighted between the Piton Lacombe and the Piton Canaries. [5] The last reliable sighting was in 1961. Though unconfirmed sightings were in 1965, 1972, 1989, 1995 and 2003 there is a weak hope for a rediscovery because suitable habitat still remains. A cause for its decline was probably the introduction of mongooses. Due to its possibly ground-nesting habits it was an easy prey for the mongooses. Another cause might be habitat destruction.
Pallas's leaf warbler or Pallas's warbler, is a bird that breeds in mountain forests from southern Siberia east to northern Mongolia and northeast China. It is named for German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas, who first formally described it. This leaf warbler is strongly migratory, wintering mainly in south China and adjacent areas of southeast Asia, although in recent decades increasing numbers have been found in Europe in autumn.
The Eastern Bonelli's warbler, sometimes known as Balkan warbler, is a "warbler" in the leaf warbler genus Phylloscopus. It was formerly regarded as the eastern subspecies of a wider "Bonelli's warbler" species, but as a result of modern taxonomic developments, they are now usually considered to be two species:
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Wilson's warbler is a small New World warbler. It is greenish above and yellow below, with rounded wings and a long, slim tail. The male has a black crown patch; depending on the subspecies, that mark is reduced or absent in the female. It breeds across Canada and south through the western United States, and winters from Mexico south through much of Central America. It is a very rare vagrant to western Europe.
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Cabot's tragopan is a pheasant found in south-east China. The common and scientific names of this large bird both commemorate the ornithologist Samuel Cabot III. Other common names include the Chinese tragopan and the yellow-bellied tragopan. The population is divided into two subspecies, of which the dominant subspecies is found in the provinces of Fujian, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Guangdong, and T. c. guangxiensis is confined to northeastern Guangxi and southern Hunan. The IUCN has assessed it as being a "vulnerable species".
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The snoring rail, also known as the Celebes rail or Platen's rail, is a large flightless rail and the only member of the genus Aramidopsis. The species is endemic to Indonesia, and it is found exclusively in dense vegetation in wet areas of Sulawesi and nearby Buton. The rail has grey underparts, a white chin, brown wings and a rufous patch on the hind-neck. The sexes are similar, but the female has a brighter neck patch and a differently coloured bill and iris. The typical call is the snoring: ee-orrrr sound that gives the bird its English name.
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The Guadeloupe amazon or Guadeloupe parrot is a hypothetical extinct species of parrot that is thought to have been endemic to the Lesser Antillean island region of Guadeloupe. Mentioned and described by 17th- and 18th-century writers, it received a scientific name in 1789. It was moved to the genus Amazona in 1905, and is thought to have been related to, or possibly the same as, the extant imperial amazon. A tibiotarsus and an ulna bone from the island of Marie-Galante may belong to the Guadeloupe amazon. In 1905, a species of extinct violet macaw was also claimed to have lived on Guadeloupe, but in 2015, it was suggested to have been based on a description of the Guadeloupe amazon.
The Nauru reed warbler is a passerine bird endemic to the island of Nauru in the Pacific Ocean. It is one of only two native breeding land-birds on Nauru and it is the only passerine found on the island. It is related to other Micronesian reed warblers, all of which evolved from one of several radiations of the genus across the Pacific. Related warblers on nearby islands include the Caroline reed warbler, with which the Nauru species was initially confused, and the nightingale reed warbler, which was formerly sometimes considered the same species.