Millerbird

Millerbird
File:Acrocephalus familiaris -Laysan, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, USA-8.jpg
Conservation status
Critically Endangered (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Acrocephalidae
Genus:	Acrocephalus
Species:	A. familiaris
Binomial name
Acrocephalus familiaris (Rothschild, 1892)
Subspecies
Acrocephalus familiaris familiaris † Acrocephalus familiaris kingi

The millerbird (Acrocephalus familiaris) is a species of Old World warbler in the family Acrocephalidae. It had two subspecies, A. f. kingi and A f. familiaris. The latter, the Laysan millerbird, became extinct sometime between 1916 and 1923. The former, the critically endangered Nihoa millerbird, remains the only race left, inhabiting the small island Nihoa in Hawaiʻi. It is the only Old World warbler to have colonised Hawaiʻi, although there is no fossil evidence that the species ever had a distribution beyond these two islands.

Millerbirds form long-term pair bonds and defend territories over a number of years. Territories can be as large as 0.95 hectares (2.3 acres), although 0.19–0.40 hectares (0.47–0.99 acres) is more typical. Breeding occurs variably from January to September depending on food availability.

References

• Morin, Marie P., Sheila Conant and Patrick Conant. (1997). Laysan and Nihoa Millerbird (Acrocephalus familiaris), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: [1]

External links

• BirdLife Species Factsheet.