The Pohnpei starling (''Aplonis pelzelni''), also known as Pohnpei mountain starling or Ponape mountain starling, is an extremely rare or possibly extinct bird from the family of
starling
Starlings are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Sturnidae. The Sturnidae are named for the genus '' Sturnus'', which in turn comes from the Latin word for starling, ''sturnus''. Many Asian species, particularly the larger ones, ...
s ( Sturnidae). It is (or was) endemic to the island of Pohnpei (
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 ...
) in the
Pacific Ocean
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 contin ...
. It was called "sie" (''pronounced see-ah'') by the Pohnpei islanders. It was named after the Austrian ornithologist
August von Pelzeln
August von Pelzeln (10 May 1825, Prague – 2 September 1891 in Oberdöbling) was an Austrian ornithologist. He was a grandson to novelist Karoline Pichler (1769-1843).
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
ethnographer John Stanislaw Kubary (1846–1896) and first described by German ornithologist
Otto Finsch
Friedrich Hermann Otto Finsch (8 August 1839, Warmbrunn – 31 January 1917, Braunschweig) was a German ethnographer, naturalist and colonial explorer. He is known for a two-volume monograph on the parrots of the world which earned him a doctorate ...
in 1876. 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 ...
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
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,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
for a while is now at the Museum Naturalis in
Leiden
Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...
,
Netherlands
)
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. It seems that this bird was rather common at the beginning of the 1930s. Sixty specimens were obtained during the
Whitney South Seas Expedition The Whitney South Sea Expedition (1920 - 1941) to collect bird specimens for the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), under the initial leadership of Rollo Beck, was instigated by Dr Leonard C. Sanford and financed by Harry Payne Whitney, a ...
led by William Coultas in 1930 and 1931. One specimen was shot by Lawrence P. Richards in 1948 who sent the skin to the Bishop Museum in
Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
,
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...
. In 1956, ornithologist Joe T. Marshall was the last western scientist who saw this bird alive. Marshall shot two specimens and sent the skins to the
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
in
Washington, D.C.
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Afterwards this bird was lost. In 1973 or 1974 it was apparently sighted at the ''Nantolemal Point'' but this unconfirmed. After several unconfirmed reports by Pohnpei islanders there were surveys in 1976, 1977, and 1983 which unfortunately failed. In 1990 it was classified as extinct by the IUCN, but on 4 July 1995 ornithologist Donald W. Buden obtained a dead female that was shot by a native guide at a herpetological expedition during 1994. Therefore, the IUCN has reclassified it as critically endangered in 2000. In 2008, surveys produced 3 records, although these have not been fully documented. A seven-day expedition in 2010 failed to produce any sightings.Pohnpei Starling ''Aplonis pelzelni'' BirdLife International
The reasons for its vanishing remained unknown. Competition with other bird species and the bird hunting have played certainly an important role and as with many bird species on islands the clutches were plundered by rats. Habitat loss might have played a minor role because even if 37% of the highland forests were cleared between 1975 and 1995, a large part of its habitat still remains.