Anthornis melanocephala Gray, 1843:188
Chatham Islands bellbird, kômako
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
A complete synonymy taken from (Checklist Committee (OSNZ), 2022:204):
Anthornis melanocephala G.R. Gray, 1843: in E. Dieffenbach, Travels in N.Z. 2: 188 – Chatham Islands.; Anthornis melanura melanocephala G.R. Gray; Mathews & Iredale 1913, Ibis 1 (10th series): 447. Anthornis melanocephala G.R. Gray; Holdaway et al. 2001, New Zealand Journ. Zool. 28(2): 138, 180.; Anthornis melanocephalus Gray, 1843:188 (emandation); Anthornis auriocula Buller, 1865: Essay N.Z. Ornith.: 8 – Chatham Islands.
Conservation Status
Extinct
Last record: 1906 (Fleming, 1939; Lindsay et al., 1959:104)
IUCN RedList status: Extinct
"CHATHAM ISLAND BELLBIRD. One of our party was informed that a bellbird was seen near North Head, Pitt Island, three years previously. The informant, who is familiar with bellbirds in New Zealand, is completely reliable, and there would appear to be no sound reason for disregarding this report. This record must necessarily be treated with great caution in view of the fact that the bird was last reported about 1906. Much of the bush on the southern third of Pitt Island is still in good condition, and densely clothes numerous small gullies which are difficult of access and may still shelter small numbers of this species. Mrs. G. Preece, of Pitt Island, reports seeing and hearing a bellbird on the southern part of the Island about 1952."
(Lindsay et al. 1959:104)
Distribution
Chatham Islands (Chatham Island, Little Mangere and Mangere , Pitt Island), New Zealand (Bartle & Sagar, 1987:260)
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Holotype: BM 1842.9.29.26 ("immature specimen")
Other specimens:
NMNZ No. 5018 (adult)
NMNZ No. 5019 (adult)
(NMNZ No. 2461
Media
Above: Chatham Island Bellbird / Komako. Anthornis melanocephala. From the series: Extinct Birds of New Zealand., 2003, Masterton, by Paul Martinson. Purchased 2006. © Te Papa. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Te Papa (2006-0010-1/8)
References
Original scientific description:
Gray. G. R. (1843). List of the birds hitherto recorded as found in New Zealand, Chatham and Auckland Islands, with their synonyma, pp. 186-201. In: Dieffenbach. Travels in New Zealand. Vol. 2. London: John Murray.
Other references:
Bartle, J. A. and Sagar, P. M. (1987). Intraspecific variation in the New Zealand Bellbird Anthornis melanura. Notornis 34(4): 253-306.
BirdLife International. (2012). Anthornis melanocephala. In: IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2012.2. (http://www.iucnredlist.org). Downloaded on 27 May 2013.
BirdLife International. 2016. Anthornis melanocephala. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T22728814A94997726. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22728814A94997726.en. Accessed on 02 July 2022.
Brooks, T. 2000. Extinct species. In: BirdLife International (ed.), Threatened Birds of the World, pp. 701-708. Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, Barcelona and Cambridge, U.K.
Buller, W. L. (1876). Notes on the ornithology of New Zealand. Trans. NZ Inst. 8: 183.
Checklist Committee (OSNZ). (2010). Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand, Norfolk and Macquarie Islands, and the Ross Dependency, Antarctica (4th ed.). Ornithological Society of New Zealand & Te Papa Press, Wellington. [p. 289-290]
Checklist Committee (OSNZ). (2022). Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand (5th edition). Ornithological Society of New Zealand Occasional Publication No. 1. Wellington: Ornithological Society of New Zealand. [p. 204]
Day, David. (1981). The Doomsday Book of Animals: A Natural History of Vanished Species. New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press.
Fleming, C. A. (1939). Birds of the Chatham Islands. Emu 38: 380-413, 492-509.
Greenway James C. (1967). Extinct and Vanishing Birds of the World. American Committee for International Wild Life Protection, Special Publication no 13, 2nd edn. Dover Publications, New York.
Holdaway, Richard N., Worthy, Trevor H. and Tennyson, Alan J. D. (2001). A working list of breeding bird species of the New Zealand region at first human contact. New Zealand Journal of Zoology 28: 119-187.
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A., Fishpool, L.D.C., Boesman, P. and Kirwan, G.M. 2016. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 2: Passerines. Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.
Jouanin, Christian. (1962). Inventaire des oiseaux éteints ou en voie d’extinction conservés au Muséum de Paris. Terre et Vie 109: 275-301.
Knox, Alan G. and Walters, Michael P. (1994). Extinct and endangered birds in the collections of The Natural History Museum. British Ornithologists' Club Occasional Publications 1: 1-292. [p. 233]
Lindsay, C. J., Phillipps, W. J. and Watters, W. A. (1959). Birds of Chatham Island and Pitt Island. Notornis 8(4): 99-106.
Millener, P.R. 1999. The history of the Chatham Islands’ bird fauna of the last 7000 years – a chronicle of change and extinction. Pp. 85–109. In: Olson, S.L. (Ed.). Avian paleontology at the close of the 20th Century. Proceedings of the 4th International meeting of the Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution, Washington, D.C., 4–7 June 1996. Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology 89: i–viii + 1–344.
Oliver, W. R. B. (1955). New Zealand birds, 2nd edition. Wellington: A. H. & A. W. Reed.
Robertson, H. A., Baird, K. A., Elliott, G. P., Hitchmough, R. A., McArthur, N. J., Makan, T. D., Miskelly, Colin M., O’Donnell, C. F. J., Sagar, P. M., Scofield, R. P., Taylor, G. A. and Michel, P. (2021). Conservation status of birds in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2021. New Zealand Threat Classification Series 36. Department of Conservation, Wellington. 43 pp.
Hugh Robertson, John Dowding, Graeme Elliott, Rod Hitchmough, Colin Miskelly, Colin O’Donnell, Ralph Powlesland, Paul Sagar, Paul Scofield, Graeme Taylor. (2013). Conservation status of New Zealand birds, 2012. New Zealand Threat Classification Series 4. 22 pp.
Sayol, Ferran, Steinbauer, Manuel J., Blackburn, Tim M., Antonelli, Alexandre and Faurby, Søren. (2020). Anthropogenic extinctions conceal widespread evolution of flightlessness in birds. Science Advances 6(49): eabb6095. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abb6095 [Supplementary Material (Data File S1)]
Tennyson, Alan J. D. and Martinson, Paul. (2006). Extinct Birds of New Zealand. Wellington: Te Papa Press. vi + 180 pp.
Tennyson, A.J.D. & Martinson, P. 2007. Extinct birds of New Zealand. Revised edition. Wellington: Te Papa Press. vi + 180 pp.
Tennyson, A.J.D. & Millener, P.R. 1994. Bird extinctions and fossil bones from Mangere Island, Chatham Islands. Notornis 41(Supplement): 165–178.
Travers, W. T. L. (1873). Chatham Islands: avifauna and flora. Trans. NZ Inst. 5: 215.
Turbott, E. G. (Convener). (1990). Checklist of the birds of New Zealand and the Ross Dependency, Antarctica, 3rd. ed. Auckland, Random Century and the Ornithological Society of New Zealand. 247 pp.
Tyrberg, Tommy. (2009). Holocene avian extinctions, pp. 63-106. In: Turvey, Samuel T. (ed.). Holocene Extinctions. Oxford, UK & New York, USA: Oxford University Press. xii + 352 pp.
Williams, G. R. (1962). Extinction and the land and freshwater-inhabiting birds of New Zealand. Notornis 10(1): 15-32.
Worthy, Trevor H. and Holdaway, Richard N. (2002). The Lost World of the Moa: Prehistoric Life of New Zealand. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. xxxiii + 718 pp.