The Fiji shrikebill (''Clytorhynchus vitiensis'') is a songbird species in the family

Monarchidae The monarchs (family Monarchidae) comprise a family of over 100 passerine birds which includes shrikebills, paradise flycatchers, and magpie-larks. Monarchids are small insectivorous songbirds with long tails. They inhabit forest or woodland a ...

. It is found in American Samoa,

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

, and Tonga. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.

Taxonomy and systematics

The Fiji shrikebill was originally described as belonging to the genus ''

Myiolestes A shrikethrush, also spelt shrike-thrush, is any one of eleven species of songbird that is a member of the genus ''Colluricincla''. They have nondescript, predominantly brown or grey, plumage, but are accomplished singers, their calls described as ...

''. Alternate names include the lesser shrikebill and uniform shrikebill.

Subspecies

Twelve

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 ...

are recognized: * Rotuman lesser shrikebill (''C. v. wiglesworthi'') - Mayr, 1933: Found on Rotuma Island (northern Fiji) * ''C. v. brunneus'' - ( Ramsay, EP, 1875): Found on

Kadavu Kadavu may refer to: * Kadavu Island, the fourth largest island in Fiji * Kadavu Group, an archipelago in Fiji including Kadavu Island * Kadavu Province, a province of Fiji including Kadavu Group * Kadavu Airport or Vunisea Airport, an airport on K ...

Ono ONO, Ono or Ōno may refer to: Places Fiji * Ono Island (Fiji) Israel * Kiryat Ono * Ono, Benjamin, ancient site Italy * Ono San Pietro Ivory Coast * Ono, Ivory Coast, a village in Comoé District Japan * Ōno Castle, Fukuoka * Ō ...

and Vanua Kula (south-western Fiji) * ''C. v. buensis'' - ( Layard, EL, 1876): Originally described as a separate species in the genus ''

''. Found on Vana Levu and Kioa (northern Fiji) * ''C. v. vitiensis'' - (

Hartlaub Karel Johan Gustav Hartlaub (8 November 1814 – 29 November 1900) was a German physician and ornithologist. Hartlaub was born in Bremen, and studied at Bonn and Berlin before graduating in medicine at Göttingen. In 1840, he began to study and ...

, 1866): Found in western Fiji * ''C. v. layardi'' - Mayr, 1933: Found on Taveuni (central Fiji) * ''C. v. pontifex'' - Mayr, 1933: Found on Qamea and

Rabi Rabi may refer to: Places * Rábí, a castle in the Czech Republic * Rabí, a village in the Czech Republic * Räbi, a village in Estonia * Rabi, Panchthar, a village development committee in Nepal * Rabi Island, a volcanic island in northern F ...

(northern Fiji) * Vanuatu lesser shrikebill (''C. v. vatuanus'') - Mayr, 1933: Found on northern Lau Islands (eastern Fiji) * ''C. v. nesiotes'' - ( Wetmore, 1919): Originally described as a separate species. Found on southern Lau Islands (eastern Fiji) * Futuna lesser shrikebill (''C. v. fortunae'') - (Layard, EL, 1876): Originally described as a separate species in the genus ''

''. Found on Futuna and Alofi (north-east of Fiji) * ''C. v. heinei'' - ( Finsch & Hartlaub, 1870): Originally described as a separate species in the genus ''

''. Found on central

Tonga Islands Located in Oceania, Tonga is a small archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, directly south of Samoa and about two-thirds of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand. It has 169 islands, 36 of them inhabited, which are in three main groups – V ...

* ''C. v. keppeli'' - Mayr, 1933: Found on Niuatoputapu and Tafahi (northern Tonga) * Manu’a shrikebill (''C. v. powelli'') - ( Salvin, 1879): Originally described as a separate species. Found on Samoa but may have gone

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 ...

in the 1990s due to habitat destruction

References

Clytorhynchus Birds of Fiji Birds described in 1866 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by Gustav Hartlaub {{Monarchidae-stub