Jamaican poorwill

The Jamaican poorwill (Siphonorhis americana), also known as the Jamaican pauraque or Jamaican least pauraqué, is a species of nightjar in the family Caprimulgidae. It is endemic to Jamaica. Its natural habitats are tropical dry forests and subtropical or tropical dry shrubland. It is critically endangered or possibly already extinct due to a combination of introduced predators and habitat destruction.[1]

Jamaican poorwill
Illustration by George Edward Lodge, 1907

Critically endangered, possibly extinct  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Caprimulgiformes
Family: Caprimulgidae
Genus: Siphonorhis
Species:
S. americana
Binomial name
Siphonorhis americana
Synonyms

Caprimulgus americanus Linnaeus, 1758

Description

It possessed distinct 2 mm long tubular nostrils with differentiated it from its relatives on the mainland.[2]

An illustration of a specimen, from 1725 (top left)

Taxonomy

The first formal description of the Jamaican poorwill was by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Caprimulgus americanus.[3][4]

References
  1. BirdLife International (2012). "Siphonorhis americana". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. Fuller, Errol (1987). Extinct Birds. Facts On File Publications. pp. 166-67. ISBN 0816018332.
  3. Linnaeus, C. (1758). Systema Naturæ per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis, Volume 1 (in Latin) (10th ed.). Holmiae:Laurentii Salvii. p. 193.
  4. Peters, James Lee, ed. (1937). Check-list of Birds of the World. Volume 4. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 194.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.