The South Island saddleback or tīeke (''Philesturnus carunculatus'') is a forest-dwelling

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

bird in the New Zealand wattlebird family which is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the

South Island The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. Both the

North Island saddleback The North Island saddleback (''Philesturnus rufusater'') is a forest-dwelling passerine bird species endemic (ecology), endemic to the North Island of New Zealand. It was once considered conspecific with the South Island saddleback. The IUCN lis ...

and this species were formerly considered conspecific. The Department of Conservation currently has the South Island saddleback listed as ''At Risk--Declining''.

Taxonomy

The South Island saddleback was first formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist

Johann Friedrich Gmelin Johann Friedrich Gmelin (8 August 1748 – 1 November 1804) was a German natural history, naturalist, chemist, botanist, entomologist, herpetologist, and malacologist. Education Johann Friedrich Gmelin was born as the eldest son of Philipp F ...

in his revised and expanded edition of

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

's ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the Orthographic ligature, ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Sweden, Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the syste ...

''. He placed it with the starlings in the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

Sturnus ''Sturnus'' is a genus of starlings. As discussed below, the Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy of this group is complex, and other authorities differ considerably in which species they place in this genus, and in the species boundaries within ''Stur ...

'' and coined the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

''Sturnus carunculatus''. The specific epithet ''carunculatus'' is

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for a small piece of flesh, hence wattles. Gmelin based his description on the "wattled stare" that had been described and illustrated in 1783 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his book ''A General Synopsis of Birds''. Latham has examined a specimen in the collection of the Leverian Museum in London that had come from New Zealand. The word "stare" is an archaic word for a starling. The South Island saddleback is now placed with the

in the genus '' Philesturnus'' that was introduced in 1832 by the French zoologist

Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (; 16 December 1805 – 10 November 1861) was a French zoologist and an authority on deviation from normal structure. In 1854 he coined the term ''éthologie'' (ethology). Biography He was born in Paris, the ...

Distribution and habitat

During the early 19th century, South Island saddlebacks were widely distributed throughout the South and Stewart Islands. However, by the end of the century, the species was in decline and nearing extinction due to introduced predators. By 1905, the saddlebacks were confined to the South Cape Islands, off the coast of Stewart Island. In 1962,

ship rats The black rat (''Rattus rattus''), also known as the roof rat, ship rat, or house rat, is a common long-tailed rodent of the stereotypical rat genus '' Rattus'', in the subfamily Murinae. It likely originated in the Indian subcontinent, but is ...

were introduced to

Big South Cape Island Taukihepa / Big South Cape Island is an offshore island of New Zealand to the west of the southern tip of Stewart Island / Rakiura. The island is the largest of the Tītī / Muttonbird Islands, and as such has no permanent inhabitants but is vi ...

, causing the extinction of the greater short-tailed bat, Stewart Island snipe and the Stead's bush wren. In early 1964, 36 individuals on Big South Cape Island were translocated by the New Zealand Wildlife Service to pest-free islands. Big Island received 21 individuals, whilst Kaimohu Island received 15. Further translocations and predator removal allowed the population to recover, with the current population estimated to be around 2000.

Behaviour and ecology

Threats

The South Island saddleback is at risk of outbreaks of avian malaria and avian pox - two outbreaks in 2002 and 2007 resulted in high mortality rates among those infected. Saddlebacks are especially vulnerable as they have had limited exposure to avian malaria, due to the disease's relatively short history in New Zealand.

Conservation

A threatened species recovery plan was established by the Department of Conservation in 1994, with the aims of maintaining wild populations, adopting quarantine procedures, and removing predators from islands potentially suitable for translocating members of the species.

In Māori culture

In Māori mythology, the orange mark was caused by the demi-god

Māui Māui or Maui is the great culture hero and trickster in Polynesian mythology. Very rarely was Māui actually worshipped, being less of a deity ( demigod) and more of a folk hero. His origins vary from culture to culture, but many of his main expl ...

asked the ''tīeke'' to fetch him some water but the bird refused and pretended not to have heard him. Consequently, Māui grabbed the ''tīeke'' and scorched the feathers of its back, and have since become an important bird for Māori.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q760674 South Island saddleback Birds of the South Island South Island saddleback South Island saddleback Endemic birds of New Zealand