Data Zone
Justification of Red List category
This species was found in Fiji, but it has not been recorded with certainty since 1890 and is now Extinct. Predation by introduced cats and mongooses is thought to have been responsible for its decline.
Population justification
No extant population remains.
Hypotaenidia poeciloptera was known from Fiji, with twelve 19th century specimens from Vitu Levu and Ovalau (Taylor and van Perlo 1998) and it was last seen with certainty in 1890 (Hume 2017). There have been reports from Taveuni (Blackburn 1971) in 1971 and Waisa, Vitu Levu, in 1973 (Holyoak 1979), although these remain unconfirmed (Hume 2017). There have been no convincing recent reports from Ovalau or Taveuni which remain mongoose-free and where other rail species were recorded during field surveys and other fieldwork in 2002-2005, and so it is highly likely that H. poeciloptera is extinct (G. Dutson in litt. 2005).
The species inhabited remote forested areas, secondary forest, old taro fields and swamps (Hume 2017, Taylor 2020).
Two other (non-endemic) rails have become extinct from the islands due to predation by introduced mongooses and cats, and so it seems very likely that this also caused the extinction of H. poeciloptera (Collar et al. 1994).
Text account compilers
Vine, J.
Contributors
Brooks, T., Dutson, G., Khwaja, N., Mahood, S. & Temple, H.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Bar-winged Rail Hypotaenidia poeciloptera. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/bar-winged-rail-hypotaenidia-poeciloptera on 23/11/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 23/11/2024.