Kosrae Island Starling
Encyclopedia
The Kosrae Island Starling, also known as Kosrae Starling, and formerly as Kusaie Mountain Starling, (Aplonis corvina) is an extinct bird from the family of starling
Starling
Starlings are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Sturnidae. The name "Sturnidae" comes from the Latin word for starling, sturnus. Many Asian species, particularly the larger ones, are called mynas, and many African species are known as glossy starlings because of their iridescent...

s (Sturnidae). It was endemic to the montane forests on the island of Kosrae
Kosrae
Kosrae , formerly known as Kusaie, is an island in Micronesia. The State of Kosrae is one of four states of the Federated States of Micronesia, and includes, besides the island of Kosrae, about a dozen satellite islands and islets, the most significant of which is Lelu Island.-Geography:With a...

 which belong to the Caroline Islands
Caroline Islands
The Caroline Islands are a widely scattered archipelago of tiny islands in the western Pacific Ocean, to the north of New Guinea. Politically they are divided between the Federated States of Micronesia in the eastern part of the group, and Palau at the extreme western end...

 in the south-western Pacific.

Description

It reached a length between 20 and 25.4 centimetres. It was crow-like, glossy black and had at long curved bill as well as a long tail.

Extinction

The Kosrae Island Starling is only known by five specimens which were obtained between December 1827 and January 1828 by the Kittlitz Expedition. Three skins can be seen in the Museum of Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

 in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 and two further in the Museum Naturalis in Leiden. In 1880 an expedition led by Otto Finsch
Otto Finsch
Friedrich Hermann Otto Finsch was a German ethnographer, naturalist and colonial explorer.-Biography:...

 was no more able to find this bird. Another survey by the Whitney South Seas Expedition
Whitney South Seas Expedition
The Whitney South Seas Expedition to collect bird specimens for the American Museum of Natural History , under the initial leadership of Rollo Beck, was instigated by Dr Leonard C. Sanford and financed by Harry Payne Whitney, a thoroughbred horse-breeder and philanthropist.Beck, an expert bird...

 of the American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...

 in 1931 brought the evidence that this species was extinct. Its extinction was most likely caused by rat
Rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...

s which could escape from whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...

 vessels during the 19th century and became widespread on Kosrae.

External links

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