Réunion kestrel
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Réunion kestrel | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Falconiformes |
Family: | Falconidae |
Genus: | Falco |
Species: | †F. duboisi
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Binomial name | |
†Falco duboisi Cowles, 1994
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The Réunion kestrel (Falco duboisi) is an
Description
Known from
Diet
The bird fed mainly on birds, but certainly also on insects and the Reunion Island day gecko (Phelsuma borbonica). Dubois noted that despite their small size they were able to prey on domestic chickens.
Extinction
Dubois mentioned three kinds of birds of prey extant on Réunion in the early 1670s: in order of decreasing size, papangues (the Malagasy harrier, Circus macrosceles, which still exists), pieds jaunes ("yellow-feet") and émerillons (a term for small falcons like the merlin, Falco columbarius). It is not quite clear what name refers to the Réunion kestrel. From reviewing the evidence, the bird was most probably the émerillon, with the pieds jaunes being either migrant falcons (the only species that might occur in the area, the sooty falcon (Falco concolor), Eleonora's falcon (F. eleonorae) and the peregrine falcon (F. peregrinus), are larger than F. duboisi was, if not in overall length, then at least in wingspan) or the juveniles of the marsh harrier, which are distinctly colored and also have yellow feet. The latter explanation seems more likely as the name was unequivocally applied to young marsh harriers in the late 19th century. Nonetheless, it seems remotely possible that the Réunion falcon's sexes were not only of different size, but also differently colored. In this case, the males would be the émerillons and the females the pieds jaunes.[2]
This seems not likely, however, as Jean Feuilley in 1705 only mentions papangues and pieds jaunes as extant. The extinction of the Réunion kestrel, which thus seems to have been around 1700, is something of a mystery, just as that of the Réunion scops owl (Otus grucheti). Introduced predators were not present in numbers at that time and even rats probably would not have presented much of a problem for the birds. Certainly, they were considered a pest as they fed on poultry, but hunting is unlikely to have been able to reduce their population much at such an early time, as evidenced by the continuous survival of the marsh harrier, which was heavily persecuted for centuries for the same reason.
References
- . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
- ISSN 0016-6995.