Amami woodcock

The Amami woodcock (Scolopax mira) is a medium-sized wader. It is slightly larger and longer-legged than Eurasian woodcock, and may be conspecific.

Amami woodcock
Stuffed specimen of Scolopax mira at the National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo, Japan.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Scolopacidae
Genus: Scolopax
Species:
S. mira
Binomial name
Scolopax mira
Hartert, 1916

This species is a restricted-range endemic found only in forests on two small islands of the Amami Islands chain in South Japan. Insofar as its habits are known, they are similar to Eurasian woodcock.

Taxonomy and Systematics

The Amami Woodcock was originally described as a subspecies of the Eurasian Woodcock, due to a juvenile that resembled the Eurasian woodcock in coloration. Later, some argued that the Amami Woodcock was a distinct species—Kobayashi in 1979 and Cramp & Simmons in 1983. Comparison between the two species revealed their distinct physical features, and led to the emergence of the Amami Woodcock as a distinct species.[2]

References
  1. BirdLife International (2012). "Scolopax mira". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. Brazil, Mark; Ikenaga, Hiroshi (December 1987). "The Amami Woodcock Scolopax mira: Its Identity and Identification" (PDF). Forktail.

Further reading

Shorebirds by Hayman, Marchant and Prater, ISBN 0-7099-2034-2

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