Family/Sub-family Callaeatidae

Species name author (Gould, 1837)

Taxonomic source(s) Brooks (2000), Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993), Turbott (1990)

Summary Heteralocha acutirostris was endemic to the southern portion of the North Island, New Zealand⁵. It was intensively studied by Buller in the second half of the 19th century⁴, and is known from numerous specimens², but declined to extinction around the turn of the century with the last confirmed record being in 1907³.

Ecology: It appears to have required large tracts of primary, native forest.

Threats The cause of its extinction is unclear but it was probably primarily due to habitat loss, especially of dead trees on which they depended for extracting beetle larvae¹, possibly along with hunting and disease³.

References 1. Burton (1974). 2. Greenway (1967). 3. Myers (1923). 4. Phillipps (1963). 5. Williams (1976).

Text account compilers Tom Brooks (Conservation International), Simon Mahood (BirdLife International)

IUCN Red List evaluators Jeremy Bird (BirdLife International), Tom Brooks (Conservation International), Stuart Butchart (BirdLife International), Alison Stattersfield (BirdLife International)

Recommended citation BirdLife International (2009) Species factsheet: Heteralocha acutirostris. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 9/2/2010

This information is based upon, and updates, the information published in BirdLife International (2000) Threatened birds of the world. Barcelona and Cambridge, UK: Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, BirdLife International (2004) Threatened birds of the world 2004 CD-ROM and BirdLife International (2008) Threatened birds of the world 2008 CD-ROM. These sources provide the information for species accounts for the birds on the IUCN Red List.

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