Bonin Wood Pigeon (Columba versicolor)
The Bonin Wood Pigeon is known only from four specimens, which had been collected on two of the Ogasawara Islands, namely Chichijima and Nakodojima, however, it may formerly of course have occurred on other islands of the archipelago as well.
Friedrich Heinrich von Kittlitz, the discoverer of this spescies, writes in his work ‘Kupfertafeln zur Naturgeschichte der Vögel’ about this bird:
“I saw it [Columba janthina] often on the island group of Boninsima, here it lives with Fig.2. (C. versicolor mihi) ,which, as a species, is visibly different albeit very similar to it, but thereby occurring much more scarcer. In al sexual- and age disparities the difference of both in colour and size is noticeable, in food and lifestyle they are incidentally closely related. They survive singly or pairwise, and readily feed, amongst other things, fruits of the local fan palm.”
The Bonin Wood Pigeon, whose Japanes name is Ogasawara-Karasubato, reached a body length of 45 cm.
The species disappeared sometimes after 1889, an exact extinction date is not known.
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References:
[1] Friedrich Heinrich von Kittlitz: Kupfertafeln zur Naturgeschichte der Vögel. Frankfurt am Main: Johann David Sauerländer 1832-1833
[2] Dieter Luther: Die ausgestorbenen Vögel der Welt. Westarp Wissenschaften 1986
[3] Errol Fuller: Extinct Birds. Penguin Books (England) 1987
[4] David Gibbs, Eustace Barnes, John Cox: Pigeons and Doves, A Guide to the Pigeons and Doves of the World. Pica Press, Sussex 2001
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(public domain)
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edited: 30.07.2011