Bar-winged rail

Bar-winged rail
Temporal range: Late Pleistocene–Late Holocene
Drawing from 1867
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Gruiformes
Family: Rallidae
Genus: Gallirallus
Species:
†G. poeciloptera
Binomial name
†Gallirallus poeciloptera
(Hartlaub, 1866)
Synonyms
  • Hypotaenidia poeciloptera
  • Gallirallus poecilopterus

The bar-winged rail (Gallirallus poeciloptera) is an extinct species of bird in the family Rallidae.

Taxonomy

Specimen in Naturalis

It was endemic to Fiji and was last collected ca 1890 in Viti Levu. The species was identified from twelve 19th century specimens, some of which are known to be in Boston, London and New York. The last unconfirmed sighting of this bird was in 1973. The bar winged rail was declared extinct by the IUCN in 1994.

Fossil remains dating back to the late Pleistocene or early Holocene are known from some caves in Fiji. The species was formerly placed in the genus Hypotaenidia.

Description and status

Egg

The bar-winged was likely flightless. It is about 33 cm (13 in) in length, and the females may have been slightly larger.

Twelve specimens are known from the 19th century. There was one unconfirmed record in 1973, the first since 1890. Its former abundance hasn't been estimated, as it was always shy and rarely seen.

References

  1. 1 2 BirdLife International (2023). "Hypotaenidia poeciloptera". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2023 e.T22728740A228869111. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2023-1.RLTS.T22728740A228869111.en.
  2. ↑ Taylor, Barry (4 March 2020). "Bar-winged Rail (Gallirallus poecilopterus)". Birds of the World. doi:10.2173/bow.bawrai1.01.
  3. ↑ Worthy, Trevor H. (2004-09-01). "The fossil rails (Aves: Rallidae) of Fiji with descriptions of a new genus and species". Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand. 34 (3): 295–314. Bibcode:2004JRSNZ..34..295W. doi:10.1080/03014223.2004.9517768. ISSN 0303-6758. S2CID 129705107.
  4. 1 2 Taylor, Barry (2020). "Bar-winged Rail (Gallirallus poecilopterus), version 1.0". Birds of the World. doi:10.2173/bow.bawrai1.01. ISSN 2771-3105.