The Chatham tomtit (''Petroica macrocephala chathamensis'') is a
subspecies of
tomtit
The tomtit (''Petroica macrocephala'') is a small passerine bird in the family Petroicidae, the Australasian robins. It is endemic to the islands of New Zealand, ranging across the main islands as well as several of the outlying islands. In MÄ ...
found on some of the smaller
islands
An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...
of
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
.
It is most similar in
plumage to the South Island tomtit, the nominate subspecies. The New Zealand government is implementing a plan to help this species and other bird species recover. The
holotype
A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of sever ...
is in the collection of the
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
Distribution
The Chatham tomtit has been
extinct on
Chatham Island
Chatham Island ( ) (Moriori: ''RÄ“kohu'', 'Misty Sun'; mi, Wharekauri) is by far the largest island of the Chatham Islands group, in the south Pacific Ocean off the eastern coast of New Zealand's South Island. It is said to be "halfway bet ...
since the 1970s. This subspecies now has a population of about 1,000 birds and is currently
restricted to the
rat-free islands of
Rangatira
In MÄori culture, () are tribal chiefs, the hereditary MÄori leaders of a hapÅ«. Ideally, rangatira were people of great practical wisdom who held authority () on behalf of the tribe and maintained boundaries between a tribe's land and that ...
,
Mangere and
Pitt.
chathams.co.nz
References
External links
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5087697
Petroica
Birds of the Chatham Islands
Birds described in 2008