The Banggai crow (''Corvus unicolor'') is a member of the

crow A crow is a bird of the genus ''Corvus'', or more broadly a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. Crows are generally black in colour. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not pinned scientifical ...

family from

Banggai regency The Banggai Regency ( id, Kabupaten Banggai) is a regency located at the eastern end of Central Sulawesi Province of Indonesia. It makes up a re-established regency ('' kabupaten''), created in 1999 by splitting the existing Banggai Regency into t ...

in the province of

Central Sulawesi Central Sulawesi (Indonesian: ''Sulawesi Tengah'') is a province of Indonesia located at the centre of the island of Sulawesi. The administrative capital and largest city is located in Palu. The 2010 census recorded a population of 2,635,009 for ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. It is listed as critically endangered by

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

. It was feared

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

, but was finally rediscovered during surveys on

Peleng Island Peleng is an island off the east coast of Sulawesi, Indonesia and is the largest island of the Banggai Islands (''Kepulauan Banggai''). It is surrounded by the Banda Sea and Molucca Sea and has an area of 2,406 km². Some of the smaller ...

off the southeast coast of

Sulawesi Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...

by Indonesian ornithologist Mochamad Indrawan in 2007 and 2008. It was sometimes considered a

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

of the

slender-billed crow The slender-billed crow (''Corvus enca'') is a Passerine bird of the family Corvidae, in the genus ''Corvus''. The violet crow has been found to be distinct genetically and separated as ''Corvus violaceus''. The small crow has been split as '' ...

, but it is actually rather distinct from this bird, resembling an entirely black

piping crow The piping crow (''Corvus typicus'') is a species of bird in the family Corvidae. It is endemic to Sulawesi in Indonesia. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TS ...

overall. The Banggai crow is a small crow, some 39 cm long and completely black with a pale iris and a short tail. For more than a century, it was known from only two

specimen Specimen may refer to: Science and technology * Sample (material), a limited quantity of something which is intended to be similar to and represent a larger amount * Biological specimen or biospecimen, an organic specimen held by a biorepository ...

s taken from an unknown island in the Banggai Archipelago - probably in 1884/1885. Visits to the

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Archi ...

in 1991 and 1996 yielded no unequivocal records of the species, leading some to believe it was extinct. During a survey conducted between 2007 and 2008 and partially financed by the Zoological Society for the Conservation of Species and Populations (Germany), it was repeatedly seen on Peleng IslandAssociation for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots and Indonesian

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

Mochamad Indrawan caught and photographed two individuals.ZGAP Mitteilungen 23/2 (2008), pp. 13-14 (German) The validity of the crows on Peleng was not recognized by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

in its 2009 Red List. Confirmation of the identity based on two specimens from Peleng was made by

Pamela C. Rasmussen Pamela Cecile Rasmussen (born October 16, 1959) is an American ornithologist and expert on Asian birds. She was formerly a research associate at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and is based at the Michigan State University. She ...

of the American Museum of Natural History in October 2009. The total population is estimated at approximately 500 mature individuals, living in mountain forest at altitudes above 500 m. The decline of the Banggai crow is thought to be primarily due to habitat loss and degradation through

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

and

extraction Extraction may refer to: Science and technology Biology and medicine * Comedo extraction, a method of acne treatment * Dental extraction, the surgical removal of a tooth from the mouth Computing and information science * Data extraction, the pro ...

. This bird remained a complete enigma for a long time. Listed as Vulnerable in the 1994

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

, it was changed to

Endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

in 2000. In 2006, the status was considered as Possibly Extinct. This proved to be incorrect and the status was corrected to Critically Endangered in the 2007 Red List.See Collar ''et al.'' (2001), BirdLife International (2004, 2007a,b).

Footnotes

References

* Association for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots.
Status and biology of the Banggai Crow (Corvus unicolor).
Accessed 24-10-2009 * BirdLife International (2009)

Retrieved 2009-JUN-19. * Collar, Nigel J.; Andreev, A. V.; Chan, S.; Crosby, M. J.; Subramanya, S. & Tobias, J. A. (eds.) (2001): Banggai Crow. ''In: Threatened Birds of Asia: The BirdLife International Red Data Book'': 2415–2416. BirdLife International. HTML fulltext
* Madge, Steve & Burn, Hilary (1994): ''Crows and jays: a guide to the crows, jays and magpies of the world''. A&C Black, London. * Vaurie, Charles (1958): Remarks on some Corvidae of Indo-Malaya and the Australian region. ''American Museum Novitates'' 1915: 1-13
PDF fulltext
* Steve Madge & John Marzluff: Family Corvidae (''Crows and Allies'') In: Del Hoyo et al. (2009) ''Handbook of the Birds of World Volume 14'' (with the first ever photograph of a living specimen) * Goodwin, Derek (1976): ''Crows of the World''

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q795512 Corvus Endemic birds of Sulawesi Banggai Regency Critically endangered fauna of Asia Birds described in 1900 Critically endangered fauna of Indonesia