Nightingale reed warbler


The nightingale reed warbler, or Guam reed warbler, is a song bird endemic to the Mariana Islands. It has not been reported since the late 1960s on Guam and is now considered exterpated from that island, though the bird can still be found on the nearby island of Saipan.

Taxonomy and systematics

The nightingale reed warbler was described by the French zoologists
Jean Quoy and Joseph Gaimard in 1832 from a specimen collected on the island of Guam in the western Pacific Ocean. They coined the binomial name, Thryothorus luscinius. Until 2011, the Pagan reed warbler, Aguiguan reed warbler, and Saipan reed warbler were considered as subspecies of the nightingale reed warbler until split by the IOC.

Threats

The nightingale reed warbler was driven to extinction by several introduced species. These included the brown tree snake which has also decimated the populations of several other bird species on Guam. Other introduced predators included rats, cats and feral ungulates such as goats or sheep. An introduced plant, ivy gourd, destroyed the canopy of the trees nightingale reed warblers built their nests in. Wetland destruction, fires and pesticides, as well as intensive land use for agriculture or building further reduced the available habitat.