Species

Justification
This species was found in the Marquesas, French Polynesia, but it is now Extinct due to the action of introduced predators. The last record was of the subspecies tristrami on Hiva Oa, in 1922.

Taxonomic source(s)
Brooks, T. 2000. Extinct species. In: BirdLife International (ed.), Threatened birds of the world, pp. 701-708. Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, Barcelona and Cambridge, U.K.
Sibley, C. G.; Monroe, B. L. 1990. Distribution and taxonomy of birds of the world. Yale University Press, New Haven, USA.

Distribution and population
Ptilinopus mercierii was endemic to the Marquesas, French Polynesia, with the nominate subspecies on Nuku Hiva and subspecies tristrami on Hiva Oa. While the former is only known from the type collected during the 1836-1839 voyage of the Venus, the latter is known from at least 11 specimens, the last collected by the Whitney Expedition in 1922 (Holyoak and Thibault 1984). The species was reported on Hiva Oa in 1980 (Hay 1986), but this was probably a mistake (Collar et al. 1994).

Ecology
Its ecology is likely to have been similar to other members of the genus Ptilinopus.

Threats
Its extinction has been attributed to predation by the introduced Great Horned Owl Bubo virginianus (Holyoak and Thibault 1984), as well as by introduced rats and cats (Collar et al. 1994).

References
Holyoak, D. T.; Thibault, J. -C. 1984. Contribution à l'étude des oiseaux de Polynésie orientale. Memoires du Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle - Serie A: Zoologie 127: 1-209.

Hay, R. 1986. Bird conservation in the Pacific Islands. International Council for Bird Preservation, Cambridge, U.K.

Seitre, R.; Seitre, J. 1992. Causes of land-bird extinctions in French Polynesia. Oryx 26: 215-222.

Collar, N. J.; Crosby, M. J.; Stattersfield, A. J. 1994. Birds to watch 2: the world list of threatened birds. BirdLife International, Cambridge, U.K.

Further web sources of information
View photos and videos, and hear sounds of this species from the Internet Bird Collection

Text account compilers
Brooks, T., Khwaja, N., Mahood, S.

IUCN Red List evaluators
Butchart, S., Symes, A.

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2013) Species factsheet: Ptilinopus mercierii. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 21/05/2013. Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2013) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 21/05/2013.

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.

To provide new information to update this factsheet or to correct any errors, please email BirdLife

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