The long-legged bunting (''Emberiza alcoveri'') is an extinct

flightless Flightless birds are birds that through evolution lost the ability to fly. There are over 60 extant species, including the well known ratites (ostriches, emu, cassowaries, rheas, and kiwi) and penguins. The smallest flightless bird is the ...

species of bunting. It was distinguishable by its long legs and short wings, and it inhabited

Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...

, one of the Canary Islands. It is one of the few flightless

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

s known to science, all of which are now extinct.

Taxonomy

This bunting belongs to the genus ''

Emberiza The buntings are a group of Old World passerine birds forming the genus ''Emberiza'', the only genus in the family Emberizidae. The family contains 45 species. They are seed-eating birds with stubby, conical bills. Taxonomy The family Emberizid ...

'', and is most closely related to Cabanis's bunting (''E. cabanisi'') and the

yellowhammer The yellowhammer (''Emberiza citrinella'') is a passerine bird in the bunting family that is native to Eurasia and has been introduced to New Zealand and Australia. Most European birds remain in the breeding range year-round, but the eastern ...

(''E. citrinella''). ''Emberiza'' is a genus inside the bunting family, Emberizidae, which is made up of small, seed-eating birds with distinctive bill shapes. The species name, ''alcoveri'', is in honour of J. A. Alcover, who contributed to fossil fauna knowledge and information.

Description

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 ...

of the long-legged bunting is a partial skeleton. Seven other associated skeletons were found. The bones are held at the

University of La Laguna The University of La Laguna (ULL; Spanish: ''Universidad de La Laguna'') is a public research university situated in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, on the island of Tenerife, Spain. It is the oldest university in the Canary Islands. The universi ...

, in

Tenerife, Spain Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the Archipelago, archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitant ...

. This species was distinguishable from other buntings as it was larger than existing ''Emberiza'' species and had longer legs, shorter wings, and a differently-shaped

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 Plac ...

. These features indicate that the long-legged bunting was a ground dweller and likely flightless. This makes it one of the few

s known or suspected to be flightless, the others being four species of

New Zealand wren The New Zealand wrens are a family (Acanthisittidae) of tiny passerines endemic to New Zealand. They were represented by seven Holocene species in four or five genera, although only two species in two genera survive today. They are understood to ...

Lyall's wren Lyall's wren or the Stephens Island wren (''Traversia lyalli'') is a small, extinct, flightless passerine belonging to the family Acanthisittidae, the New Zealand wrens. It was once found throughout New Zealand, but when it came to the attention ...

(''Traversia lyalli''), the

South Island stout-legged wren The South Island stout-legged wren or Yaldwyn's wren (''Pachyplichas yaldwyni'') is an extinct species of New Zealand wren, a family of small birds endemic to New Zealand. History and etymology The holotype is a right tarsometatarsus (NMNZS 2 ...

(''Pachyplichas yaldwyni''), the

North Island stout-legged wren The North Island stout-legged wren or Grant-Mackie's wren (''Pachyplichas jagmi'') is an extinct species of New Zealand wren, a family of small birds endemic to New Zealand. History and etymology The holotype is a right tarsometatarsus (AU 7 ...

(''Pachyplichas jagmi''), and the long-billed wren (''Dendroscansor decurvirostris''). All four of these wrens are also extinct. This bunting was probably

omnivorous An omnivore () is an animal that has the ability to eat and survive on both plant and animal matter. Obtaining energy and nutrients from plant and animal matter, omnivores digest carbohydrates, protein, fat, and fiber, and metabolize the nut ...

, like the other species in its genus. It likely ate

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

s and

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

s. However, because of its differently-shaped bill, harder seeds could have been included in its diet.

Distribution and habitat

The long-legged bunting was a native of the Canary Islands. Bones from this species have only been found in the volcanic cave

Cueva del Viento Cueva del Viento ("Wind Cave") is the largest lava tube system in Europe, and the sixth largest in the world, behind a series of lava tubes in Hawaii. It is also considered the most complex volcanic tube in the world, due to its morphology of seve ...

, on the island of

. Other

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

that lived alongside this bunting include various birds, mammals, and lizards. This species likely lived in the laurel forest or the transition forest, as food would be plentiful and the herb layer would protect against aerial predators.

Extinction

The long-legged bunting had lived in Tenerife during the

Upper Pleistocene The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as Upper Pleistocene from a stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division of the Pleistocene Epoch within ...

and the

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...

. Humans arrived over 2,000 years ago, bringing with them invasive species such as

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...

pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus ...

cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

s, and

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated ...

that may have preyed on the birds or modified their habitat. The Europeans affected Tenerife even more when they arrived in the 1400s, introducing rats and clearing forest for agriculture. The long-legged bunting seems to have been driven to extinction because of these invasive species and the destruction of its habitat.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5830641 Extinct flightless birds Birds of the Canary Islands Late Quaternary prehistoric birds Holocene extinctions Emberiza Birds described in 1999 Extinct birds of Atlantic islands Fossil taxa described in 1999