Mauke starling facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Mauke starling |
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| Conservation status | |
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| Genus: |
Aplonis
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| Species: |
mavornata
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The Mauke starling or mysterious starling (Aplonis mavornata) was a type of starling bird. It lived on the island of Mauke in the Cook Islands. Sadly, this bird is now extinct. The name mavornata came from a mistake by Walter Buller, who misread the original name on the bird's label. Even though the name doesn't mean anything, it was still officially accepted.
What Did the Mauke Starling Look Like?
This starling was about 7.5 inches (19 cm) long. Its bill (beak) was about 1 inch (2.5 cm) from its mouth. Its legs were about 2.74 cm long, and its tail was 6.4 cm. The bird's wing was 10.5 cm long, and its wingspan was 32 cm.
The Mauke starling was a dull, dark black color. Its feathers had lighter brown edges. These edges were easy to see on its body feathers. They were less noticeable on its wing and tail feathers. The bird had bright yellow eyes. Its feet and bill were a dusky brownish color, or a bit lighter.
The bird that lived closest to the Mauke starling was the Rarotonga starling. The Rarotonga starling was bigger. It also had grayish body feathers with light grey edges. The Mauke starling looked a lot like a smaller version of the Samoan starling. It was almost one-third smaller and had yellow eyes.
Why Did the Mauke Starling Disappear?
There's a lot of mystery about why the Mauke starling went extinct. We only know about one Mauke starling specimen. A specimen is a preserved example of an animal. This one was shot by Andrew Bloxam on August 9, 1825. Bloxam was a naturalist on the ship HMS Blonde. He found the bird "hopping about [on a] tree."
Scientists did not visit Mauke island again until 1973. By then, the Mauke starling was gone. It likely died out because of predators like rats. These rats were brought to the island by humans. Bloxam wrote in 1825 that they "saw quantities of rats with long tails." These rats were different from the usual Polynesian rat. They looked more like the Norway rat in color and size.
Other types of Aplonis starlings are also very sensitive to rat attacks. So, it's likely that the Mauke starling disappeared soon after these new rats arrived.
Solving the Mystery of the Mauke Starling
For a long time, there was much confusion about the Mauke starling specimen. It didn't have clear information about where or when it was collected. The confusion started when Walter Buller misread the name on the label in 1887. He wrote mavornata instead of inornata.
Later, Richard Bowdler Sharpe tried to correct the name to inornata. But this name was already used by Tommaso Salvadori for another starling in 1880. So, even though Buller's name mavornata was a mistake and didn't make sense, it became the official name. This is how naming rules work in science.
There was also a drawing by Georg Forster from 1774. Some people thought this drawing was of the same bird as the Mauke starling specimen. They thought the bird in the drawing was from Rai’atea (also called Ulieta). This idea even appeared in a novel called The Conjurer's Bird.
However, there were many differences between the specimen and Forster's drawing. A scientist named Erwin Stresemann showed that this theory was wrong. But some writers kept linking the Mauke starling to Forster's bird. They connected it to the Society Islands or Captain Cook's second voyage.
The real mystery of the specimen was finally solved in 1986. Storrs Olson studied Bloxam's original diary and notes. He found that Bloxam's "Sturnus Mautiensis" was indeed the same as Buller's A. mavornata. Bloxam's notes were first published in a very changed way. They only said they "...saw [...] a starling..." without many details. This is why the true origin of the mysterious starling was missed for so long.
It's interesting to note that Forster's bird, which was also called "the mysterious bird of Raiatea," is likely another extinct Aplonis species. So, in a way, there might have been two "mysterious starlings" from the Pacific islands!
