MISTAKEN IDENTITY OF THE BLACK BELLIED ORIENTAL MAGPIE ROBIN

On several occasions recently, I have came across local advertisements selling the black bellied oriental magpie robins as seychelles magpie robins. I am quite sure that the sellers did not have intentions to mislead but had mistakenly thought that their birds were actually the seychelles magpie robins, the confusion arising from pictures on the internet.

The seychelles magpie robin (copsychus sechellarum) is an endangered species.
Below are some information regarding the seychelles magpie robin.

The seychelles magpie robins are one of the rarest birds on earth and they can only be found on five seychelles islands, namely Fregate, Cousin, Cousine, Aride and Denis. At one time around 1990, there were only 23 birds counted and these were found only on Fregate Island. Habitat destruction and predation from introduced domestic cats were cited amongst the reasons for their decline. They were then classified as "critcally endangered" under the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Animals. In 1990, a recovery programme was launched to save these birds from extinction, initially managed by Birdlife International and Royal Society for Protection of Birds from 1990 to 1997. The management of the programme was passed to Nature Seychelles from 1998 onwards. The recovery programme has been very successful and the seychelles magpie robin was downlisted in 2005, from "critically endangered" to "endangered" under the IUCN's Red List when its population had exceeded 50 adult individuals for more than 5 years. From an official population count in 2006, there were a total of 178 specimens found on the four islands - Fregate, Cousin, Cousine and Aride.

The population on Cousin Island was on a sharp decline since 2005, from 47 birds to just 27 due to competition from the exploding population of moorhens on the island. The seychelles magpie robin population was recently also extended to Denis Island through the translocation of 20 birds taken from Fregate and Cousin.

Although their conservation status has improved since the launch of the recovery programme, the seychelles magpie robin is still one of the rarest birds in the world.

The all-black magpie robin we keep as a songbird here is the black bellied oriental magpie robin (copsychus saularis) and not the seychelles magpie robin.

http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=6638&m=0

http://www.nation.sc/index.php?art=13400