Data Zone
Justification of Red List category
This species was endemic to the island of Réunion, but is now Extinct and has not been recorded since 1671-1672. Persecution is likely to have driven its decline.
Population justification
No extant population remains.
Trend justification
The only mention of this species is by Dubois (1674), who reported that they hunt the inhabitant's domestic fowl. The resulting persecution is likely was drove this species extinct (Hume 2017).
Falco duboisi is known only from subfossil bones collected by Bertrand Kervazo in the Grottes des Premiers Français on Réunion (to France) in 1974 (Cowles 1994). The specimens are deposited in the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris (Cowles 1994).
It is likely to have occurred in open habitat throughout the island.
Reasons for its extinction are unknown, but persecution as a result of the species taking domestic fowl (Dubois 1674) is thought to be the primary cause (Hume 2017).
Text account compilers
Brooks, T., Mahood, S., Richardson, L., Khwaja, N.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Reunion Kestrel Falco duboisi. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/reunion-kestrel-falco-duboisi on 22/12/2024.
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 22/12/2024.