Critically Endangered
New Caledonian Lorikeet
Charmosyna diadema
The New Caledonian lorikeet (Vini diadema) is a possibly extinct lorikeet endemic to the Melanesian island of New Caledonia.
Appearance
Female birds are green overall, with deep violet blue crown and dark bluish thighs, a yellowish face and underside face, and a red anal region. The tail is green above and yellowish olive below, with the four lateral feathers with red basal markings followed by a black band, tipped yellow on the underside. The beak is orange-red, the iris probably dark orange like the feet.
The New Caledonian lorikeet is 18–19 cm (7.1–7.5 in) long, 7–8 cm (2.8–3.1 in) of that is the slim and pointed tail.
Range and habitat
Unverified reports exist from west of Mont Panié and the Mont Ignambi area in the North Province, and from the La Foa-Canala road and Yaté Lake in the South Province. Given the low accessibility of the highlands, flocks could, in theory, exist in any of the larger remaining patches of relatively undisturbed forest, e.g., between the intercoastal roads around the province border. The New Caledonian lorikeet (Vini diadema) is a possibly extinct lorikeet endemic to the Melanesian island of New Caledonia.
The species existed near Oubatche. One bird was shot but could not be preserved. The introduction of cats and European rats in the mid-19th century fits the assumed pattern of decline. Even so, cats probably didn't spread over the whole island until recent times.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
Related species eat nectar, pollen, blossoms, and sometimes soft fruit, foraging in pairs or small (typically fewer than 10) flocks. Breeding season probably is July–December, and possibly to February, or even all-year round.
In crisis
Other reports on sightings include that of an older local who identified it from a colored plate and claimed to have observed a single bird in shrubland near Lake Yaté "many years ago," possibly in the 1920s, and a forestry official claimed to have twice seen two individuals fly overhead, once in 1953 or 1954 on the La Foa-Canala road, and once on June 3, 1976, W of Mt Panié. The 1999 rediscovery of Aegotheles savesi, that was known only from a single male skin for 119 years, provides encouragement. New Caledonian bird populations decline wherever habitat is modified, that supports the hypothesis that human interference impacts the birds in a serious way.
Introduced cats or rats could have been responsible for the decline, or an introduced disease, or a combination of these factors and subtle habitat changes. Rats, especially black rats, that are arboreal, probably represent a serious threat, but the species did not succumb to the prehistoric arrival of the Polynesian rat.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix II. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
New Caledonian Lorikeet is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on New Caledonian Lorikeet, Wikidata item Q787162. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
