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GALLERIES > BIRDS > CORVOIDAE > CORVIDAE > BANGGAI CROW [Corvus unicolor]


Banggai Crow Picture
 
 

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SPECIES INFO

The Banggai Crow, Corvus unicolor, is a member of the crow family. It is listed as a critically endangered species because of the lack of recent records on the species and knowledge of habitat loss and might even be extinct already, but very little is known about this species.

It was sometimes considered a subspecies of the Slender-billed Crow, but it is actually rather distinct from this bird, resembling an entirely black Piping Crow overall. The Banggai Crow is a medium-sized crow, some 39 cm long and completely black with a dark iris and a short tail.

The Banggai Crow is thought to live in subtropical or tropical lowlands and moist forest. For more than a century, it was only known from two specimens taken from an unknown island in the Banggai Archipelago - probably in 1884/1885. Visits to the archipelago in 1991 and 1996 yielded no unequivocal records of the species, leading some to believe it is extinct. Indonesian ornithologists caught and photographed a living bird in January 2008 in the woods of Peleng Island. The decline of the Banggai Crow is thought to be primarily due to habitat loss and degradation through agriculture and extraction.

This bird remained a complete enigma for a long time. Listed as Vulnerable in the 1994 IUCN Red List, it was uplisted to Endangered in 2000. In 2006, it was further uplisted to Possibly Extinct. Fortunately this proved to be incorrect and the status is corrected to Critically Endangered 2007 Red List issue.





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