Brace's Emerald
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Brace's emerald (''Riccordia bracei'') is an
extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...
species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...
of hummingbird which was
endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...
to the main island of the
Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of its population. ...
,
New Providence New Providence is the most populous island in The Bahamas, containing more than 70% of the total population. On the eastern side of the island is the national capital, national capital city of Nassau, Bahamas, Nassau; it had a population of 246 ...
.


Description

Its weight was its wingspan was ;its length was and the length of its tail was . The black
bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Pl ...
was slightly straight and short. The legs and feet were black. The back exhibited a slaty blue hue with a black gleam. The head was similarly coloured to the back, with the absence of the black gloss. Directly behind the eyes was a white eyebrow. The throat was white. The abdomen had white
feathers Feathers are epidermis (zoology), epidermal growths that form a distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on both Bird, avian (bird) and some non-avian dinosaurs and other archosaurs. They are the most complex integumentary structures found in ...
with black and yellow splotches. The wings exhibited a bluish hue with white wingbars. The rectrices were blackish. The crissum (the undertail covert which surrounded the cloacal opening) was white with a faint yellow hue at the edges.


Status and extinction

For more than a hundred years, Brace's emerald was only known by the
type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wikt:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally associated. In other words, a type is an example that serves to ancho ...
, one single male which was shot by bird collector Lewis J. K. Brace on July 13, 1877, around three miles (4.8 kilometres) away from Nassau on the island of New Providence. The skin (which is unfortunately heavily damaged at the throat) is now at the
Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...
in
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
The species was long ignored by ornithological authorities. In 1880, it was listed without commentary as a synonym of the Cuban emerald (''Riccordia ricordii''). Not until the 1930s was the unique status of the
holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...
even recognized, as it was seen as an aberrant specimen of the Cuban emerald that had become a
vagrant Vagrancy is the condition of wandering homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants usually live in poverty and support themselves by travelling while engaging in begging, scavenging, or petty theft. In Western countries, ...
to New Providence. American ornithologist
James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...
was the first to discuss the differences between ''R. ricordii'' and ''R. bracei''. In 1945, he split ''R. ricordii'' and regarded ''R. ricordii bracei'' as a new subspecies. In contrast to the Cuban species, the specimen from New Providence was smaller, had a longer bill and a different plumage. In 1982, palaeornithologists William Hilgartner and
Storrs Olson Storrs Lovejoy Olson (April 3, 1944 – January 20, 2021) was an American biologist and ornithologist who spent his career at the Smithsonian Institution, retiring in 2008. One of the world's foremost avian paleontologists, he was best known ...
discovered fossil remains of three hummingbird species from the
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...
in the deposits in a cave of New Providence. These were the Bahama woodstar (''Nesophlox evelynae''), Cuban emerald (''R. ricordii''; also ''R. elegans''), and another species, which was later identified as ''Riccordia bracei''. This provided evidence that Brace had discovered a new hummingbird species which lived on New Providence since the Pleistocene. It formed a
relict A relict is a surviving remnant of a natural phenomenon. Biology A relict (or relic) is an organism that at an earlier time was abundant in a large area but now occurs at only one or a few small areas. Geology and geomorphology In geology, a r ...
population, and most likely due to habitat loss and human disturbance (e.g. agriculture), it became extinct at the end of the 19th century. Both ''R. bracei'' and ''R. elegans'' are listed as extinct on the 2024
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 an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...
as extinct species.


References


Further reading

*


External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q137848 Brace's emerald Birds of the Bahamas Extinct birds of the Caribbean Bird extinctions since 1500 Brace's emerald Brace's emerald Endemic birds of the Bahamas Species known from a single specimen