Data Zone
Justification of Red List category
This species, was known from Mauke, Cook Islands, but it is now Extinct presumably due to predation by introduced brown rats. The type specimen was taken in 1825, and the species was not found on the next ornithological visit to Mauke in 1975.
Population justification
No extant population remains, with the species being known from only the holotype collected in 1825. By the time of the next field visits 150 years later, the species had been extirpated.
Aplonis mavornata is known only from the type specimen, collected on Mauke, Cook Islands, by Bloxam in 1825 (Olson 1986), and not on Cook's voyages (Pratt et al. 1987). The island was not visited by ornithologists until nearly 150 years after Bloxam's collection, by which time the species had become extinct (Olson 1986).
Nothing is known, but like other members of the genus it is likely to have inhabited the island's forests.
Its extinction was presumably as a result of predation by introduced rats (Hume 2017).
Text account compilers
Vine, J.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Mysterious Starling Aplonis mavornata. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/mysterious-starling-aplonis-mavornata 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.