Cyornis ruckii Oustalet, 1881
Rueck's blue-flycatcher, Rueck's blue-flycatcher, Rueck's niltava
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Cyornis ruecki Oustalet, 1881; Cyornis ruecki ruecki Oustalet, 1881; Cyornis vanheysti Robinson & Kloss, 1919
Conservation Status
Missing or invalid (synonym)
Last record: February 1918
IUCN RedList status: Critically Endangered
Two specimens were collected c.1880 in Kesang, Malacca, Malaysia and then described as a new species by Oustalet. However, one of these specimens is probably a trade skin, and the other may be too. Hence the type locality, although certainly where the specimens were obtained from, may not be the actual range of the species.
A further two specimens were collected in April 1917 (juvenile female) and February, 1918 (adult male) from Delitua and Tuntungan, Indonesia, respectively. These latter two specimens were described as a new species: C. vanheysti Robinson & Kloss, 1919, but later recognized as being conspecific with C. ruckii.
Distribution
Tuntungan and Delitua, northern Sumatra, Indonesia (and Kesang, Malacca, Malaysia?)
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Four preserved specimens exist (Collar, 2020).
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Other references:
Assiddiqi, Zulqarnain, van Balen, Sebastianus and Collar, Nigel J. (2020). Mystery flycatchers in Sumatra - Rück's Blue-flycatcher or White-tailed Flycatcher? Kukila 23: 19-26.
BirdLife International. (2012a). Cyornis ruckii. In: IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2012.1. (http://www.iucnredlist.org). Downloaded on 09 July 2012.
BirdLife International. (2012b). Species factsheet: Cyornis ruckii. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 09/07/2012.
Butchart, S. H. M.; Collar, N. J.; Crosby, M. J. & Tobias, J. A. (2005). Asian enigmas: "Lost" and poorly known birds: targets for birders in Asia. Birding Asia 3: 41-49.
Butchart, Stuart H. M., Lowe, Stephen, Martin, Rob W., Symes, Andy, Westrip, James R. S. and Wheatley, Hannah. (2018a). Which bird species have gone extinct? A novel quantitative classification approach. Biological Conservation 227: 9-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2018.08.014
Butchart, Stuart H. M., Stattersfield, A. J. and Brooks, T. M. (2006). Going or gone: defining ‘Possibly Extinct’ species to give a truer picture of recent extinctions. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 126A: 7-24.
Butchart, Stuart H. M., Wheatley, Hannah, Lowe, Stephen, Westrip, James R. S., Symes, Andy and Martin, Rob W. (2018b). Data for: Which bird species have gone extinct? A novel quantitative classification approach. Mendeley Data, V1, doi: 10.17632/vvjhpmyxb4.1
Collar, Nigel J. (2020). Rück’s Blue-flycatcher Cyornis ruckii: the evidence revisited. Kukila 23: 14-18.
Martin, Thomas E., Bennett, Gareth C., Fairbairn, Andrew J. and Mooers, A. Ø. (2023). ‘Lost’ taxa and their conservation implications. Animal Conservation 26(1): 14-24. https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.12788 [Appendix S2 (1617 taxa not seen >10 years); Appendix S3 (562 taxa not seen >50 years)]
Robinson, H. C. and Kinnear, N. B. (1928). Notes on the Genus Cyornis Blyth. Novitates Zoologicae 34: 231-261.
Robinson, H. C. and Kloss, C. Boden. (1920). On A Collection of Birds from N. E. Sumatra. Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 81: 79-115. [description of Cyornis vanheysti]
http://birdbase.hokkaido-ies.go.jp/rdb/rdb_en/cyorruck.pdf