| 2009 IUCN Red List Category (as evaluated by BirdLife International - the official Red List Authority for birds for IUCN): Least Concern Justification Although this species may have a restricted range, it is not believed to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size has not been quantified, but it is not believed to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern. Family/Sub-family Megapodiidae Species name author Gaimard, 1823 Taxonomic source(s) Jones et al. (1995) Taxonomic note Megapodius freycinet (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) has been split into M. freycinet and M. geelvinkianus following Jones et al. (1995). Megapodius forstenii was split, with some justification, from M. reinwardt by Jones et al. (1995), of which it has long been treated as a subspecies. However, Jones et al. (1995) also remark that in structure forstenii is "close to M. freycinet and (especially) M. geelvinkianus…"but do not develop the point. However, the case for a close relationship between these forms is supported on mensural and distributional grounds and on the molecular evidence of Birks and Edwards (2002). The BirdLife Taxonomic Working Group therefore does not recognise forstenii as a separate species and consider that it probably best regarded as a subspecies of freycinet.
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