Tasman starling

Tasman starling
Conservation status
Extinct (1923)  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Sturnidae
Genus:	Aplonis
Species:	A. fusca
Binomial name
Aplonis fusca (Gould, 1836)
Synonyms
Aplonis fuscus

The Tasman starling (Aplonis fusca) was described in 1836 by John Gould as a species which occurred on both Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island. In 1928 Australian ornithologist Gregory Mathews recognized that the plumage of the race from Lord Howe Island was much browner and more greyish than the plumage of the Norfolk Island race and split the species into two forms, the Norfolk starling (Aplonis fusca fusca), and Lord Howe starling (Aplonis fusca hulliana). Both subspecies are now extinct, thus so the species.

References

• Errol Fuller (2000). "Extinct Birds", ISBN 0-8160-1833-2

External links

• BirdLife Species Factsheet
• Tasman starling at Naturalis (page includes 3D image of specimen RMNH 110.034 (requires QuickTime browser plugin))
• Lord Howe starling at Naturalis (page includes 3D images of specimens RMNH 110.032, RMNH 110.033 and RMNH 110.035 (requires QuickTime browser plugin))
• Norfolk Island Starling. Aplonis fusca. by Paul Martinson. Artwork produced for the book Extinct Birds of New Zealand, by Alan Tennyson, Te Papa Press, Wellington, 2006
• Birdtheme.org Illustration on a stamp