Moorea Reed Warbler Acrocephalus longirostris Scientific name definitions

20–22 cm. Even larger than A. caffer in all measurements, except tarsus length. Adult has most of upperparts dark olive, with straw-yellow fringes to most feathers, with white or creamy-white tips to the primaries and secondaries, yellow wing bend, and also has largely pale cream to yellowish-white tail feathers. Has narrow yellow supercilium, lores, cheeks and entire underparts, including undertail- and underwing-coverts, but breast-sides and flanks, as well as lores and cheeks can show some dark olive feathers. Iris olive-brown, bill has horn-coloured maxilla and pinkish mandible, and legs and feet slate-colored. Sexes alike. Juvenile undescribed. No evidence of a dark morph, unlike the formerly conspecific A. caffer. Otherwise, main difference from latter species is the tail patern, wherein all but the central rectrices are mainly pale cream.

Moorea (Windward Group of Society Is); perhaps extinct (1 BirdLife International (2016). IUCN Red List for birds. URL: http://www.birdlife.org (download Nov 2016). Close ).

Found in secondary forest at elevations of 300–600 m.

Few details are known, but song is believed to resemble that of A. caffer. However, no sound recordings are available.

CRITICAL. Believed to be probably extinct, but causes of the species’ decline are unknown. Restricted-range species: present in Society Islands EBA. A. longirostris is known only from specimens collected during Cook’s second voyage in the middle years of the 1770s (of which just one is still extant), three more skins taken during the Whitney South Sea Expedition in early Aug and late Oct 1921, and sight records in 1971–1973 (in Oponohu land) and Jul 1981 (Atiha Valley). Surveys in Dec 1986 and Jan 1987, covering bamboo growth in the valleys of Atiha, Pao-Pao, Oponohu and at the foot of Mt Tohivea, failed to find the species. However, there have been two unconfirmed sightings since 2000. On neighbouring Tahiti, A. caffer has declined due principally to the reduction in the area of bamboo groves, but apparently suitable habitat is still present on Moorea. Other threats to the survival of A. caffer on Tahiti are potentially also operative on Moorea.