Bermuda towhee

The Bermuda towhee (Pipilo naufragus) is an extinct bird of the towhee genus Pipilo that was endemic to Bermuda.

Bermuda towhee Temporal range: Pleistocene-Holocene
Conservation status
Extinct (1612)  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Passerellidae
Genus:	Pipilo
Species:	†P. naufragus
Binomial name
†Pipilo naufragus Olson & Wingate, 2012
Synonyms
Pipilo sp. undescribed Olson & Hearty, 2009

Taxonomy

It was a large member of the genus and closely related to the eastern towhee. The scientific description was in 2012, based on Pleistocene and Holocene remains from Quaternary cave deposits. 38 bones from at least five individuals are known.

History

An old travel report by William Strachey who was shipwrecked on Bermuda from 1609 to 1610 might refer to that species. He wrote in 1625:

Sparrowes fat and plumpe like a Bunting, bigger then ours.^[2]

The exact cause for its extinction is unknown, but it most definitely became extinct soon after human arrival to Bermuda in the early 1600s. Its decline is thought to have been accelerated by predation from invasive species.