The North Island piopio (''Turnagra tanagra'') was a

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 t ...

bird of the family Oriolidae. The North Island piopio is now considered to be

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 ...

Taxonomy and systematics

For many years, the North Island piopio was considered to be conspecific with the

South Island piopio The South Island piopio (''Turnagra capensis'') also known as the New Zealand thrush, was a passerine bird of the family Oriolidae. Taxonomy and systematics The South Island piopio was originally described in the genus ''Tanagra'' (a synony ...

, but the two are now regarded as two separate species due to their pronounced differences in external appearance and

osteology Osteology () is the scientific study of bones, practised by osteologists. A subdiscipline of anatomy, anthropology, and paleontology, osteology is the detailed study of the structure of bones, skeletal elements, teeth, microbone morphology, funct ...

(Olson ''et al.'', 1983). An alternate name for the North Island piopio is the North Island thrush.

Status

The North Island piopio was

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found 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 found elsew ...

to the

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

of New Zealand and was described by

Walter Buller Sir Walter Lawry Buller (9 October 1838 – 19 July 1906) was a New Zealand lawyer and naturalist who was a dominant figure in New Zealand ornithology. His book, ''A History of the Birds of New Zealand'', first published in 1873, was publishe ...

as being common in 1873, although only a few specimens were ever collected, and it declined rapidly after that time (Buller, 1888). The last specimens were collected in 1900, or more probably in 1885/1886 (Medway, 1968), and by the 1960s only around 27 specimens remained in museums worldwide.see page 189 Medway, David G. (1968): Records of the Huia, North Island Thrush and North Island Kokako from the diaries of Joseph Robert Annabell (1857–1924) ''Notornis'' 15(3): 177–192. Occasional sight records of people claiming to have seen the bird (e.g. Sopp, 1957) persisted until 1970 (Bell & Singleton, 1974; Olsen 1993), but the North Island piopio is now considered extinct. Its last stronghold appears to have been the area that later became the

Whanganui National Park The Whanganui National Park is a national park located in the North Island of New Zealand. Established in 1986, it covers an area of 742 km2 bordering the Whanganui River. It incorporates areas of Crown land, former state forest and a numb ...

, possibly extending north-east to the Hauhungaroa Range west of

Lake Taupō Lake Taupō (also spelled Taupo; mi, Taupō-nui-a-Tia or ) is a large crater lake in New Zealand's North Island, located in the caldera of the Taupō Volcano. The lake is the namesake of the town of Taupō, which sits on a bay in the lake's nor ...

. The introduction of foreign predatory mammals such as cats and rats to New Zealand's North Island is mostly to blame for the North Island piopio's extinction, with habitat loss and predation by

mustelid The Mustelidae (; from Latin ''mustela'', weasel) are a family of carnivorous mammals, including weasels, badgers, otters, ferrets, martens, minks and wolverines, among others. Mustelids () are a diverse group and form the largest family in ...

s also being significant from the 1880s onward.

References

* Bell, R. & Singleton, L. (1974): A sighting of the Piopio or Native Thrush. ''Notornis'' 21(3): 268–269
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* Buller, Walter L. (1873): ''A history of the birds of New Zealand (1st edition)''. van Woorst, London * Buller, Walter L. (1888): ''A history of the birds of New Zealand (2nd edition)'' 2. Published by the author, London. * Medway, David G. (1968): Records of the Huia, North Island Thrush and North Island Kokako from the diaries of Joseph Robert Annabell (1857–1924) ''Notornis'' 15(3): 177–192
PDF fulltext
* Olsen, Malcolm (1993): North Island Piopio – a possible 1930s record. ''Notornis'' 40(1): 26
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* Olson, Storrs L.; Parkes, K. C.; Clench, M. H. & Borecky, S. R. (1983): The affinities of the New Zealand passerine genus ''Turnagra''. ''Notornis'' 30(4): 319–336
PDF fulltext
* Schlegel, Hermann (1866An upcoming publication by "Rene" Dekker of the

Naturalis Naturalis Biodiversity Center ( nl, Nederlands Centrum voor Biodiversiteit Naturalis) is a national museum of natural history and a research center on biodiversity in Leiden, Netherlands. It was named the European Museum of the Year 2021. Alth ...

will show why this date is correct, not the usually cited 1865.): escription of ''Turnagra tanagra'' ''Nederlandsch Tijdschrift voor de Dierkunde'' 3: 190. * Sopp, G. E. (1957): North Island Native Thrush or Pio-Pio (''Turnagra capensis tanagra''). ''Notornis'' 7(4): 101–102
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Footnotes

External links

North Island Piopio. Turnagra tanagra.
by Paul Martinson. Artwork produced for the book ''Extinct Birds of New Zealand'', by Alan Tennyson, Te Papa Press, Wellington, 2006 {{Taxonbar, from=Q947572 North Island piopio Birds of the North Island Extinct birds of New Zealand Bird extinctions since 1500 North Island piopio