Miller's Crake
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| Miller's Crake | ||||||||||||||
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| Porzana nigra |
The Miller's Crake or (Porzana nigra) is an extinct bird species from Miller Island, the only native rail known on the island.
It was a very rare species even when first discovered and only two small specimens have ever been taken of this species. It appeared to be a brown bellied, black backed rail, with a stout neck with a small beak and head. It had yellow-orange legs and was quite short.
Some scientists believe that this species is just a mutated form due to how the two specimens look. Even though the two rails found on Miller's Island were both recorded as the same species there were some differences. One was the color of the legs. Both specimens were males yet one had yellow legs and the other had orange. The second difference were the eyes which also had different colors. The orange-legged one had brown eyes while the yellow leg one had red eyes.
The species quickly disappeared from the island after the first people arrived on the island. The possible cause of extinction were the introduction of rats and a rail that displaced the Miller's species and eventually went extinct as well, some 50 years from rats.
[edit] External links
- BirdLife International (2004). Porzana. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 23 November 2007. Database entry includes justification for why this species is extinct
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