Tasman Starling
Encyclopedia
The Tasman Starling was described in 1836 by John Gould
as a species which occurred on both Norfolk Island
and Lord Howe Island
. In 1928 Australian ornithologist Gregory Mathews recognized that the plumage of the race from Lord Howe Island was much browner and more greyish than the plumage of the Norfolk Island race and split the species into two forms, the Norfolk Starling
(Aplonis fusca fusca), and Lord Howe Starling
(Aplonis fusca hulliana). Both subspecies are now extinct, thus so the species.
John Gould
John Gould was an English ornithologist and bird artist. The Gould League in Australia was named after him. His identification of the birds now nicknamed "Darwin's finches" played a role in the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection...
as a species which occurred on both Norfolk Island
Norfolk Island
Norfolk Island is a small island in the Pacific Ocean located between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. The island is part of the Commonwealth of Australia, but it enjoys a large degree of self-governance...
and Lord Howe Island
Lord Howe Island
Lord Howe Island is an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, directly east of mainland Port Macquarie, and about from Norfolk Island. The island is about 11 km long and between 2.8 km and 0.6 km wide with an area of...
. In 1928 Australian ornithologist Gregory Mathews recognized that the plumage of the race from Lord Howe Island was much browner and more greyish than the plumage of the Norfolk Island race and split the species into two forms, the Norfolk Starling
Norfolk Starling
The Norfolk Starling , was a small bird in the starling family. It is the extinct nominate subspecies of the Tasman Starling, the only other subspecies being the Lord Howe Starling .-Distribution:...
(Aplonis fusca fusca), and Lord Howe Starling
Lord Howe Starling
The Lord Howe Starling was a small bird in the starling family. It is an extinct subspecies of the Tasman Starling , the only other subspecies being the Norfolk Starling which is also extinct...
(Aplonis fusca hulliana). Both subspecies are now extinct, thus so the species.
External links
- BirdLife Species Factsheet
- 3D view of specimens RMNH 110.032, RMNH 110.033 and RMNH 110.035 at NaturalisNaturalisNaturalis is the national natural history museum of the Netherlands, based in Leiden. It originated from the merger of the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie and the Rijksmuseum van Geologie en Mineralogie in 1984. In 1986 it was decided that the museum had to become a public museum and a new...
, Leiden (requires QuickTimeQuickTimeQuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. The classic version of QuickTime is available for Windows XP and later, as well as Mac OS X Leopard and...
browser plugin). - Norfolk Island Starling. Aplonis fusca. by Paul Martinson. Artwork produced for the book Extinct Birds of New Zealand, by Alan Tennyson, Te Papa Press, Wellington, 2006
- Birdtheme.org Illustration on a stamp