Melopyrrha grandis Lawrence, 1881
Saint Kitts bullfinch, St Kitts bullfinch, Barbuda bullfinch, Saint Kitts Puerto Rican bullfinch, St. Christopher bullfinch
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Loxigilla portoricensis grandis Lawrence, 1881; Melopyrrha portoricensis grandis Lawrence, 1881
Transferred to the genus Melopyrrha by (Burns et al., 2014). Another, prehistoric, subspecies was believed to have become extinct on neighbouring Barbuda, but it is now know that they both belong to the same subspecies (Pregill et al., 1994).
Conservation Status
Missing
Last record: 1880 (Bond, 1956); 26 July 1929 (Olson, 1984; Kittelberger et al., 2024 [as 1929])
IUCN RedList status: "now considered extinct"
Various possible explanations for the extinction of the St. Kitts Bullfinch have been proposed (eg. Raffaele, 1977; Steadman, 1997 etc.), but as with the extinction of many species, we will probably never know for sure.
Distribution
St. Kitts (=St. Christopher) & Barbuda
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Holotype: USNM 80930 (female)
Other specimens:
AMNH 41226 (male)
AMNH 129120 (male)
FMNH 9067 (male)
FMNH 9068 (male)
FMNH 9070 (male)
FMNH 906916 (female)
USNM 80929 (male)
USNM 80928 (male)
USNM 318207 (sex unspecified)
[url=http://nlbif.eti.uva.nl/naturalis/detail.php?lang=uk&id=32]RMNH 110.037[/url] (male)
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Lawrence, George N. (1881). Description of a new sub-species of Loxigilla from the island of St. Christopher, West Indies. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 4: 204-205.
Other references:
American Ornithologists’ Union. (1998). Check-list of North American birds. 7th ed. American Ornithologists’ Union, Washington, DC.
BirdLife International. (2012). Loxigilla portoricensis. In: IUCN 2013. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.1. (http://www.iucnredlist.org). Downloaded on 19 August 2013.
Bond, James. (1936). Birds of the West Indies. Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Bond, James. (1956). Check-list of birds of the West Indies. Philadelphia: Academy of Natural Sciences.
Burns, Kevin J. et al. (2014). Phylogenetics and diversification of tanagers (Passeriformes: Thraupidae), the largest radiation of Neotropical songbirds. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 75: 41-77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2014.02.006
Danforth, S. T. (1936). The birds of St. Kitts and Nevis. Trop. Agric. 13: 213-217.
Day, David. (1981). The Doomsday Book of Animals: A Natural History of Vanished Species. New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press.
Garrido, Orlando H. and Wiley, James W. (2003). The taxonomic status of the Puerto Rican bullfinch (Loxogilla portoricensis) (Emberizidae) in Puerto Rico and St. Kitts. Ornitologia Neotropical 14: 91-98.
Hellmayr, C. E. (1938). Catalogue of birds of the Americas. Volume 13, Part II, Field Museum of Natural History, Zool. Ser., Chicago, Illinois.
Kittelberger, Kyle D., Tanner, Colby J., Buxton, Amy N., Prewett, Amira and Şekercioğlu, Çağan Hakkı. (2024). Correlates of avian extinction timing around the world since 1500 CE. Avian Research 15: 100213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avrs.2024.100213 [Supplementary data (List of 216 taxa)]
Mittermeier, John C. et al. (2022). Fantastic lost birds and how you can help find them: an updated gap analysis for the Neotropical avifauna. Neotropical Birding 31: 25-32.
Olson, S. L. (1984). The last St. Kitts Bullfinch Loxigilla portoricensis grandis (Emberizinae) and the extinction of its race. Bull. British Ornithol. Club 104: 121-3.
Paynter, R. A., Jr. (1970). Subfamily Emberizinae, pp. 3-214. In: Paynter, R. A., Jr. (ed.). Check-list of birds of the world. Volume 13. Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Massachusetts.
Pregill, Gregory K., Steadman, David W. and Watters, D. R. (1994). Late Quaternary vertebrate faunas of the Lesser Antilles: historical components of Caribbean biogeography. Bulletin of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, No. 30.
Raffaele, Herbert A. (1977). Comments on the extinction of Loxigilla portoricensis grandis in St. Kitts, Lesser Antilles. Condor 79(3): 389-390.
Steadman, David W. et al. (1997). The Birds of St. Kitts, Lesser Antilles. Caribbean Journal of Science 33(1-2): 1-20. [Abstract]