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This lovely bird is a Mariana crow (Corvus kubaryi)1. Unfortunately, by 2011, the Mariana crow was extirpated from Guam2, its main habitat. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated the bird as being "critically endangered".
Status and conservation1
On Guam, the Mariana crow's decline is primarily due to predation by the introduced brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis). In spite of protection of nesting-sites by electrical tree barriers, the remaining birds are considered to be reproductively senescent. On Rota, many other threats endanger the crow, including homestead development, resort and golf-course construction, agricultural settlement, nest-predation from introduced rats, the Mariana monitor lizard (Varanus tsukamotoi), typhoons, predation from feral cats, disease, and competition with the black drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus). More recently, the brown tree snake has also been detected on Rota, likely leading to serious declines in the Mariana crow population there if the snake population establishes itself. The Mariana crow is also persecuted by residents of both islands who see it as an obstacle to development.3
In 1993, a National Wildlife Refuge was established on Guam to preserve the remaining forest, and birds were translocated from Rota. Biologically controlling the brown tree snake is also being discussed.
Crows were transported from Rota to Guam in 2003 to assist conservation efforts though this may have had the unintended side effect of decreasing genetic variation within the species as tests have shown the Rota population is less diverse than the Guam.4
Formerly classified as an endangered species by the IUCN,5 it was suspected to be rarer than generally assumed. Following the evaluation of its status, this was found to be correct, and it is consequently uplisted to critically endangered status in 2008 as it is in immediate danger of extinction, numbering so few birds that it could be entirely wiped out by a single catastrophic event such as an epidemic of West Nile virus.36
[Sigh...] Poor human beings, be nice to the earth. 😟
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Footnotes
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All information comes from the Mariana crow page on Wikipedia. ↩ ↩2
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Cortes-Rodriguez, Nandadevi; Campana, Michael; Berry, Lainie; Faegre, Sarah; Derrickson, Scott; Ha, Renee; Dikow, Rebecca; Rutz, Christian; Fleischer, Robert (1 March 2019). "Population Genomics and Structure of the Critically Endangered Mariana Crow (Corvus kubaryi)". Genes. 10 (3): 187. doi:10.3390/genes10030187. ISSN 2073-4425. ↩
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"Mariana crow species factsheet". BirdLife International (BLI). 2008. Retrieved 23 May 2008. ↩ ↩2
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John M. Marzluff; Tony Angell (2007). In the Company of Crows and Ravens. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12255-8. ↩
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BirdLife International (2018). "Corvus kubaryi". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018: e.T22705959A129626293. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22705959A129626293.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021. ↩
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"IUCN Redlist status changes". BirdLife International (BLI). 2008. Archived from the original on 14 September 2008. Retrieved 23 May 2008. ↩