Species

Justification
This species was found in the eastern Canary Islands, but is now Extinct due to overharvesting of its invertebrate prey. It was last collected in 1913, and locally reported to be absent by the 1940s.

Taxonomic source(s)
AERC TAC. 2003. AERC TAC Checklist of bird taxa occurring in Western Palearctic region, 15th Draft. Available at: http://www.aerc.eu/DOCS/Bird_taxa_of _the_WP15.xls.
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.

Taxonomic note
Hockey (1982) showed that this taxon was distinct from African Black Oystercatcher H. moquini.

Distribution and population
Haematopus meadewaldoi was endemic to Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and their offshore islets in the Canary Islands, Spain (Collar et al. 1994). It was last collected in 1913 and locally reported to have become extinct by the 1940s (Collar and Stuart 1985). It is now considered extinct because extensive surveys in the mid-1980s failed to find any evidence of the species's survival, despite four convincing reports (two from Tenerife and two from Senegal) between 1968 and 1981 (Collar et al. 1994).

Ecology
It inhabited the coastal zone where it foraged for invertebrates; its ecology was likely to have been typical of the genus.

Threats
Its decline was probably a result of overharvesting of intertidal invertebrates and disturbance by people (Hockey 1987), although predation by rats and cats has also been implicated (Collar and Stuart 1985).

References
Hockey, P. A. R. 1982. The taxonomic status of the Canary Islands Oystercatcher Haematopus (niger) meadewaldoi. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 102: 77-83.

Collar, N. J.; Stuart, S. N. 1985. Threatened birds of Africa and related islands: the ICBP/IUCN Red Data Book. International Council for Bird Preservation, and International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Cambridge, U.K.

Hockey, P. A. R. 1987. The influence of coastal utilisation by man on the presumed extinction of the Canarian Black Oystercatcher Haematopus meadewaldoi Bannerman. Biological Conservation 39: 49-62.

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.

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

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

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2013) Species factsheet: Haematopus meadewaldoi. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 26/05/2013. Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2013) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 26/05/2013.

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.

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