The Pohnpei fantail (''Rhipidura kubaryi'') is a

fantail Fantails are small insectivorous songbirds of the genus ''Rhipidura'' in the family Rhipiduridae, native to Australasia, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Most of the species are about long, specialist aerial feeders, and named as " ...

, known as Likepsir in Pohnpeian, which is

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 else ...

to the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

island of Pohnpei in the

Federated States of Micronesia The Federated States of Micronesia (; abbreviated FSM) is an island country in Oceania. It consists of four states from west to east, Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosraethat are spread across the western Pacific. Together, the states comprise a ...

. It is a bird commonly found in forests and at forest edges. It feeds on

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three ...

s which it gathers by

gleaning Gleaning is the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers' fields after they have been commercially harvested or on fields where it is not economically profitable to harvest. It is a practice described in the Hebrew Bible that became a legall ...

amongst foliage or by making short dashes while in the air. It is a small bird (15 cm) with a long, fan-shaped tail which is often fanned or wagged. The plumage is mostly dark grey with a white eyebrow, moustache and tips to the tail feathers. The belly is white and the breast is blackish with white feather edges giving a scaly appearance. The species is closely related to the

rufous fantail The rufous fantail (''Rhipidura rufifrons'') is a small passerine bird, most commonly known also as the black-breasted rufous-fantail or rufous-fronted fantail, which can be found in Australia, Indonesia, Micronesia, New Guinea and the Solomon I ...

(''Rhipidura rufifrons'') but it is darker and duller in appearance with a different song and feeding behaviour. The scientific name commemorates the Polish naturalist

Jan Kubary John Stanislaw Kubary (13 November 1846 in Warsaw, Poland – 9 October 1896 in Pohnpei), also stated as Jan Stanisław Kubary, Jan Kubary, or Johann Stanislaus Kubary, was a Polish naturalist and ethnographer. In 1868 he became a collector for ...

References

* H. Douglas Pratt, Philip L. Bruner & Delwyn G. Berrett (1987), ''A Field Guide to the Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific'', Princeton University Press.

External links

Stamp showing the Pohnpei fantail
Rhipidura Pohnpei Birds described in 1876 Taxa named by Otto Finsch {{Rhipiduridae-stub