Originally posted by WPRESTO I would welcome help identifying this bird (zoo specimen)
It's definitely a member of the Rallidae (rails, gallinules, moorhens, coots) because of long legs and toes, stubby wings, almost non-existent tail, barred flanks, and laterally compressed body shape (the origin of the expression of "thin as a rail"). That chestnut eye-line, pale grey supercilium, and rufous bar on the chest place it in the genus
Hypotaenidia. However, the rufous on the chest indicates Roviana Rail (
H. rovianae) (Solomon Islands) or Buff-banded Rail (
H. philppensis) (parts of Australiasia; extirpated on many islands). The colour of the bill suggests the latter.
That genus includes the recently extirpated in the wild (1987) Guam Rail (
H. owstoni), thanks to the introduction of the brown tree snake. History and palaeontology reveals that the arrival of humans and their rats, pigs, dogs, cats, and snakes in Australasia and Polynesia has been disastrous for the Rallidae, causing the extinction of dozens of rail species on Pacific islands. The colonization of Polynesia by Polynesians may have caused the extinction of 25% of the world's bird species, and the later arrival of Europeans didn't help.
---------- Post added 26th Jan 2018 at 17:11 ----------
Originally posted by WPRESTO Cool!
I'll look that up and check the description against multiple images I have of that bird, just to make sure.
A pied imperial pigeon, unless my on-line search landed on the wrong id.
I think you're right. You're definitely in the right genus (
Ducula).