Alejandro Selkirk Firecrown
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The Alejandro Selkirk firecrown (''Sephanoides fernandensis leyboldi'') is an
extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...
subspecies of the Juan Fernández firecrown that lived on
Alejandro Selkirk Island Alejandro Selkirk Island (), previously known as Más Afuera (Farther Out (to Sea)) and renamed after the marooned sailor Alexander Selkirk, is the largest and most westerly island in the Juan Fernández Archipelago of the Valparaíso Region of ...
in the
Juan Fernández Archipelago ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. The name is of Hebrew origin and has the meaning "God has been gracious." It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking countries around the world and in the Philippi ...
belonging to
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...
.


Taxonomy

Most worldwide taxonomic systems accept this species as putative. However, a few authors question this subspecies and whether a firecrown ever existed on Alejandro Selkirk Island.Johow, Federico. (2007). El picaflor de la Isla de Masafuera: ¿subspecie extinta, nunca existió o mistery bird? / The Hummingbird of the Masafuera Island: extinct subspecies, never existed or Mystery Bird? Boletín Chileno de Ornitología 13: 28-41. n Spanish with English summary/ref>


Extinction

The Alejandro Selkirk firecrown may have went extinct due to
deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...
,
erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...
and
predation Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common List of feeding behaviours, feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation ...
by introduced cats, rats, goats, and rabbits.Hume, Julian P. (2017): ''Extinct Birds''. Bloomsbury Publishing, 560 pages. It might have also competed with the introduction of plants such as ''
Luma apiculata ''Luma apiculata'', the Chilean myrtle, ''arrayán'' or ''temu'', is a species of flowering plant in the myrtle family, native to the central Andes between Chile and Argentina, at 33 to 45° south latitude. Growing to tall and wide, it is a vigo ...
'', as well as the
green-backed firecrown The green-backed firecrown (''Sephanoides sephaniodes'') is a hummingbird in the "coquettes", tribe Lesbiini of subfamily Lesbiinae. It is found in Argentina, mainland Chile, and the Juan Fernández Islands.HBW and BirdLife International (20 ...
. It was last seen in 1908, but the sighting was unconfirmed.


References

fernandensis {{Hummingbird-stub