They probably became rarer during French rule in Mauritius (1715–1810), as lowland areas of the island were almost completely deforested during this time. Given the early disappearance of so many Mauritian birds it is perhaps surprising that this pigeon lasted so long. It was not identified as a Mauritius blue pigeon until the British ornithologist Alfred Newton saw it in 1879. [22], Many other endemic species of Mauritius became extinct after the arrival of man, so the ecosystem of the island is severely damaged and hard to reconstruct. Frugivorous birds often need a large area for foraging and move between forest types to feed on different types of food, which grow irregularly. Nevertheless, there is some information about features of the bird. It is the type species of the genus of blue pigeons, Alectroenas.. "Notes on the extinct pigeon from Mauritius, "Systematics, morphology, and ecology of pigeons and doves (Aves: Columbidae) of the Mascarene Islands, with three new species", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mauritius_blue_pigeon&oldid=986518061, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using multiple image with auto scaled images, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 1 November 2020, at 10:38. Explore. [26] The gizzard and crop contained four "nuts", which Cossigny was told were the seeds of either Calophyllum tacamahaca or Labourdonnaisia calophylloides. The first record of the Mauritius blue pigeon is two sketches in the 1601–1603 journal of the Dutch ship Gelderland. The next account is that of Jean-François Charpentier de Cossigny in the mid-18th century. The drawings were made by the Dutch artist Joris Joostensz Laerle on Mauritius, but were not published until 1969. The small Mauritian flying fox and the snail Tropidophora carinata lived on Mauritius and Réunion but became extinct in both islands. pulcherrima). [18], Some depictions and descriptions have shown the legs of Mauritius blue pigeons as red, like those of the Madagascar blue pigeon. [22] Extant blue pigeons are also considered good food, and are heavily hunted as a result, and it appears another population of them was hunted to extinction from the Farquhar and Providence islands. It has two extinct relatives from the Mascarenes and three extant ones from other islands. [11] There are three extant species: the Madagascan blue pigeon (A. madagascariensis), the Comoros blue pigeon (A. sganzini), and the Seychelles blue pigeon (A. It had white hackles around the head, neck and breast and blue plumage on the body, and it was red on the tail and the bare parts of the head. You are purchasing a digital reproduction of the original image. By 1812, Jacques Gérard Milbert stated that solitary individuals were found in river valleys. It was the largest and most robust member of its genus, and the hackles were longer and covered a larger area than in other blue pigeons. All the species have distinct mobile hackles on the head and neck. Invaluable is the world's largest marketplace for … Photography Subjects. Several stuffed and at least one live specimen reached Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. Some modern restorations of the bird have also depicted it with facial crenulations, like those of the Seychelles blue pigeon. A patch of bright red, naked skin surrounded the eyes, and extended across the cheeks to the beak, which was greenish with a dark tip. The Mauritius blue pigeon coexisted with humans for 200 years. One only I have received alive but died later after a few months from dropsy. More were collected by Etienne Thirioux around 1900. By 1893, only one of them, specimen MNHN n°C.G. Extinct Mauritian reptiles include the saddle-backed Mauritius giant tortoise, the domed Mauritius giant tortoise, the Mauritian giant skink and the Round Island burrowing boa. The iris was reddish orange and had an inner yellow ring. Extant blue pigeons are also considered good food, and are heavily hunted as a result, and it appears another population of them was hunted to extinction from the Farquhar and Providence islands. [22] Pretorius attempted to keep juvenile and adult Mauritius blue pigeons in captivity, but all his specimens died. [28], Cossigny noted that the bird had become rare by 1755, but were common 23 years before, and attributed the decline to deforestation and hunting by escaped slaves. Breeding in Indian ocean: Mauritius I.; can be seen in 1 country. This feature is not mentioned in contemporary accounts, and such depictions are thought to be erroneous. Post Jan 30, 2015 #1 2015-01-30T13:25. It is the type speciesof the genus of blue pigeons, Alectroenas. The first record of the Mauritius blue pigeon is two sketches in the 1601–1603 journal of the Dutch ship Gelderland. Fruits and nuts were probably the mainstay of the Mauritius blue pigeon's diet, and like other blue pigeons, it may have occupied the upper canopy, and migrated seasonally to where food was available. [2] The birds appear to have been freshly killed or stunned. Juvenile Seychelles and Comoro blue pigeons have green feathers, so this may also have been the case for juvenile Mauritian pigeons. The Mauritius blue pigeon was easy to catch due to island tameness.[29]. The last specimen recorded was shot in Savanne in 1826 and given to Julien Desjardins, founder of the Mauritius Natural History Museum in Port Louis, where it is still located, though in poor condition. Apr 24, 2015 - Mauritius Blue Pigeon | rhamphotheca:Mauritius Blue Pigeon (Alectroenas nitidissima)EXTINCT ..., 1830s. Jul 2, 2017 - Mauritius blue pigeon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The legs of the Paris specimen were painted red when the original colour faded, presumably on the basis of such accounts. [19] In 1812 Jacques Gérard Milbert provided the only description of the behaviour of the bird in the wild: The second is the pigeon with a mane; the inhabitants of the Ile de France [Mauritius] call it pigeon hollandais; the head, neck and chest are adorned with long pointed white feathers which it can raise at will; the rest of the body, and the wings, are a fine deep violet; the end of the tail is a purplish red. Other blue pigeons perch on bare branches, making them vulnerable to hunters. In 1840 George Robert Gray named a new genus, Alectroenas, for the Mauritius blue pigeon; alektruon in Greek means domestic cock, and oinas means dove. The Mauritius blue pigeon probably lived in pairs or small groups in humid, mountainous evergreen forests, like their extant relatives. Some depictions and descriptions have shown the legs of Mauritius blue pigeons as red, like those of the Madagascar blue pigeon. The bird was first mentioned in the 17th century and was described several times thereafter, but very few accounts describe the behaviour of living specimens. They are thought to have been found near Le Pouce mountain and Plaine des Roches. [15] Their ancestral group appears to be the fruit doves (Ptilinopus) of Southeast Asia and Oceania. This is a list of Extinct species in Mauritius according to the IUCN Red List.. A diet of snails would have provided the birds with calcium for egg production. The Mauritius blue pigeon (Alectroenas nitidissimus) is an extinct species of blue pigeon formerly endemic to the Mascarene island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar.It has two extinct relatives from the Mascarenes and three extant ones from other islands. Three species survive today: Seychelles Blue Pigeon, A. pulcherrima, ('very beautiful') on most of the granitic Seychelles, Comoro Blue Pigeon, A. sganzini, on the Comoros (nominate race) and Aldabra (A. s. minor), and Madagascar Blue Pigeon, A. madagascariensis, on Madagascar. Some plants, such as Casearia tinifolia and the palm orchid, have also become extinct.[25]. Mauritius actually has a terrible track record when it comes to birds; the Dodo is the most famous casualty, but many of their birds went extinct. Mauritius Blue Pigeon bird photo call and song/ Alectroenas nitidissimus (Columba nitidissima) - extinct bird They are allopatric and can therefore be regarded as a superspecies. [12] The three Mascarene islands were each home to a species, all of which are extinct: the Mauritius blue pigeon, the Rodrigues blue pigeon (A. payandeei), and the Réunion blue pigeon (A. It was 30 cm (12 in) long and larger and more robust than any other blue pigeon species. This is probably because the species was almost exclusively frugivorous, like extant blue pigeons. It is the type species of the genus of blue pigeons, Alectroenas. The only two known life drawings of the species (by G. Haasbroek) depict this individual. Extinct Mauritian reptiles include the saddle-backed Mauritius giant tortoise, the domed Mauritius giant tortoise, the Mauritian giant skink and the Round Island burrowing boa. This is rather anomalous because although other closely related species of pigeon also have warty faces, the Mauritius blue pigeon had been previously always depicted in illustrations and accounts of the era as having a smooth face. Mauritius Blue Pigeon (Alectroenas nitidissimus) bird sounds free on dibird.com. The report also talks about an enigmatic bird called the Mauritius blue pigeon, which he said had a warty face. The binomial name was emended from A. nitidissimus to A. nitidissima in 2014. [6], Alectroenas blue pigeons are closely interrelated and occur widely throughout islands in the western Indian Ocean. [4], The French naturalist Pierre Sonnerat described the bird in 1782, calling it Pigeon Hollandais (Dutch pigeon), a French vernacular name that derives from its red, white, and blue colouration, which reminded him of the Dutch flag (the French flag did not yet have these colours). Several stuffed and at least one live specimen reached Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. The little dodo is a strange and rare bird. 22. This is the coat of arms of Mauritius - which consists of a Dodo Bird and a Sambur Deer supporting sugar cane and a shield divided into four sections. 1 post Mauritius Blue Pigeon Mauritius Blue Pigeon. Photography. 1790, University of Amsterdam. [20], The Mauritius blue pigeon coexisted with humans for 200 years. Few descriptions of the behaviour of Mauritius blue pigeons are known; unpublished notes by Desjardins are now lost. This is a characteristic behaviour of other blue pigeons, too, and they can also vibrate their hackles. Only three stuffed specimens exist today, and only one bird was ever depicted when alive. It was not identified as a Mauritius blue pigeon until Alfred Newton saw it in 1879. The surviving endemic fauna is still seriously threatened. The gizzard and crop contained four "nuts", which Cossigny was told were the seeds of either Calophyllum tacamahaca or Labourdonnaisia calophylloides. [17] Little lowland forest was left on the island by 1859. [2] It was the largest and most robust member of its genus, and the hackles were longer and covered a larger area than in other blue pigeons. The Mauritius blue pigeon (Alectroenas nitidissima) is an extinct species of blue pigeon formerly endemic to the Mascarene island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar. [17] Cossigny dissected a specimen in the mid-18th century and later sent it and its stomach contents to the French scientist René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur with a letter describing his findings. An individual was brought to the Netherlands around 1790, where it survived in the menagerie of William V, Prince of Orange for three months before dying of oedema. Some modern restorations of the bird have also depicted it with facial crenulations, like those of the Seychelles blue pigeon. Jan 20, 2015 - The Mauritius Blue Pigeon (Alectroenas nitidissimus) is an extinct species of blue pigeon formerly endemic to the Mascarene island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar. Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre used the name batavica ("the Dutch one") in his description in 1790. This is probably because the species was almost exclusively frugivorous, like extant blue pigeons. It had stiff, white, pointed hackles around the head, neck and breast and blue plumage on the body, and it was red on the tail and the bare parts of the head. Apart from habitat destruction and hunting, introduced predators, mainly crab-eating macaques, were probably also responsible. Subfossil remains have been found in mid-west, mid-east and south-east Mauritius, indicating that the bird was once widespread. The Mauritius blue pigeon (Alectroenas nitidissimus) is an extinct species of blue pigeon formerly endemic to the Mascarene island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar.It has two extinct relatives from the Mascarenes and three extant ones from other islands. Other blue pigeons perch on bare branches, making them vulnerable to hunters. The last confirmed specimen was shot in the Savanne district in 1826, but the 1832 report by Desjardins suggests that some could still be found in remote forests in the centre of the island. 624. He had collected two specimens during a voyage in 1774. [6], When German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin redescribed the bird with the species name franciae ("of France") in 1789, he referred to the French tricolour which had just been flown for the first time. The illustrations show a displaying male raising its hackles into a ruff. Art. Jul 9, 2014 - Mauritius Blue Pigeon | Mauritius Blue-pigeon (Alectroenas nitidissima) Their ancestral group appears to be the fruit doves (Ptilinopus) of Southeast Asia and Oceania. Alectroenas nitidissima is the type species of the genus, which includes all blue pigeons. Another skin arrived at the Paris museum in 1800, collected by Colonel M. Mathieu for Louis Dufresne. At least two species are extinct. Soon after this date the species seems to have become extinct. Juvenile Seychelles and Comoro blue pigeons have green feathers, so this may also have been the case for juvenile Mauritian pigeons. The Mauritius blue pigeon (Alectroenas nitidissimus) is an extinct species of blue pigeon formerly endemic to the Mascarene island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar. Apr 24, 2015 - Mauritius Blue Pigeon | rhamphotheca:Mauritius Blue Pigeon (Alectroenas nitidissima)EXTINCT ..., 1830s. [14] Their closest genetic relative is the cloven-feathered dove of New Caledonia (Drepanoptila holosericea), from which they separated 8–9 million years ago. Cheke, A.S. 1987. These colours were thought similar to those of the Dutch flag, a resemblance reflected in some of the bird's names. [18], Unlike the three surviving skins of Mauritius blue pigeons, one of two illustrations (the other is in black-and-white) of a live individual kept in the Netherlands around 1790 shows a red forehead. This feature is not mentioned in contemporary accounts, and such depictions are thought to be erroneous. Cossigny dissected a specimen in the mid-18th century and later sent it and its stomach contents to René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur with a letter describing his findings. The Comoro and Seychelles blue pigeons also feed on C. tacamahaca, and the strong gizzard of the former helps in the digestion of the seeds. The males had red foreheads, and the juveniles may have been partially green. A patch of bright red, naked skin surrounded the eyes, and extended across the cheeks to the beak, which was greenish with a dark tip. Milbert may in any case have been referring to arboreal snails, as extant blue pigeons rarely land on the ground. [22], The claim that the bird fed on river molluscs was criticised by the French zoologists Alphonse Milne-Edwards and Emile Oustalet in 1893, with the later agreement of the American ornithologist James Greenway in 1967, as blue pigeons are principally arboreal. Cossigny dissected a specimen in the mid-1700s and later sent it and its stomach contents to René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur with a letter describing his findings. Burns. † Fruits and nuts were probably the mainstay of the Mauritius Blue Pigeon's diet, and like other blue pigeons, it may have occupied the upper canopy, and migrated seasonally to where food was available. These colours were thought similar to those of the Dutch flag, a resemblance reflected in some of the bird's names. [2], Extinct bird in the family Columbidae from Mauritius, Life drawings of a male with raised and lowered hackles, c. 1790, "Mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences support a Cretaceous origin of Columbiformes and a dispersal-driven radiation in the Paleogene". They probably became rarer during French rule in Mauritius (1715–1810), as lowland areas of the island were almost completely deforested during this time. 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