Guam flycatcher

Guam flycatcher/ Guam broadbill
Specimen in Mount Santa Rosa
Conservation status
Extinct (1983)  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Monarchidae
Genus:	Myiagra
Species:	†M. freycineti
Binomial name
†Myiagra freycineti Oustalet, 1881
Synonyms
Myiagra freycinetti Myiagra oceanica freycineti

The Guam flycatcher (Myiagra freycineti), or Guam broadbill, is an extinct species of bird in the family Monarchidae formerly endemic to Guam.^[1][2]

Taxonomy and systematics

Some authorities consider the Guam flycatcher to have been a subspecies of the Oceanic flycatcher.^[3] It has also been considered conspecific with the Pohnpei flycatcher and Palau flycatcher.^[4] It was locally known as the chuguangguang. Alternate names for the Guam flycatcher include Guam Myiagra, Guam Myiagra flycatcher, Marianne Islands flycatcher, Micronesian broadbill, and Micronesian Myiagra.^{[citation needed]}

Description

The Guam flycatcher was a small bird measuring 5 inches (13 cm) long with different coloration for the males and females. Males were glossy blue-black above while females were brownish-gray. Both had white below and buff coloration on the breast. It had a wide bill with long "whiskers" which helped it locate its food.^{[citation needed]}

Status

Turnaround video of specimen RMNH 110.008 at Naturalis Biodiversity Center

The bird was secretive and occurred mainly in limestone and ravine forests. Although common on Guam as recently as the early 1970s, the flycatcher's population went into a rapid decline due to predation by the brown tree snake, Boiga irregularis, which was accidentally introduced to the island in the 1940s. The last sighting of the flycatcher occurred in the Santa Rosa area in 1983.^[5]

Given the small size of the island, the complete absence of recent sightings, and the universal presence of the brown tree snake in the bird's former habitat, the Guam flycatcher is considered extinct.^[2][4]

See also

• List of birds of Guam

References

1. BirdLife International (2016). "Myiagra freycineti". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22707354A94119161. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22707354A94119161.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
2. "Guam Department of Agriculture". Archived from the original on 2011-07-19. Retrieved 2009-02-01.
3. "Myiagra freycineti - Avibase". avibase.bsc-eoc.org. Retrieved 2017-01-27.
4. "Guam Flycatcher (Myiagra freycineti)". Birds of the World. 2020-03-04.
5. Savidge, Julie A. (1987). "Extinction of an Island Forest Avifauna by an Introduced Snake". Ecology. 68 (3): 660–668. Bibcode:1987Ecol...68..660S. doi:10.2307/1938471. ISSN 0012-9658. JSTOR 1938471.