Pseudochelidon sirintarae Thonglongya, 1968
White-eyed river martin
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Eurochelidon sirintarae Thonglongya, 1968; Eurychelidon serintarae Thonglongya, 1968 [orth. error used by (Tyrberg, 2009:96)]
BirdLife International lists the species author of Pseudochelidon sirintarae as "Kitti, 1968". However, that was Thonglongya's first name and not his surname.
Conservation Status
Missing
Last record: February 1977 (January 1980?); 1978 (Martin et al., 2023)
IUCN RedList status: Critically Endangered
According to BirdLife International (2012) the last official sighting of the White-eyed River-Martin was in 1978, with two unconfirmed sightings since then, the last of which occurred in 1986. However, no references are given to support any of these claimed sightings, which is puzzling.
King and Kanwanich (1978) reported sighting six adult birds in February 1977. And four immature individuals were apparently seen by (Sophasan & Dobias, 1984) in January, 1980. All known sightings have occurred during winter, and attempts to locate its breeding grounds have been unsuccessful (Thonglongya, 1969). Dickinson (1986) presented circumstantial evidence that it may in fact breed in China, strengthening the conjecture of (King and Kanwanich, 1978) who had hypothesized just that.
If the White-eyed River-Martin [i]is[/i] migratory then there is some hope for its survival as those very few migratory species which have likely gone extinct disappeared from their wintering grounds before they disappeared from their breeding grounds (e.g. Eskimo curlew). Future surveys should therefore also target its possible breeding grounds during the appropriate months.
Distribution
Bung Boraphet, Thailand (& China?)
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
12 preserved specimens are known (Dickinson, 1986; BirdLife International, 2012). Which consists of the type series (n=9) (Thonglongya, 1968), another specimen subsequently taken by Thonglongya (1969), and two further specimens 'found' in 1972 (King, 1978-1979).
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Thonglongya, Kitti. (1968). A new martin of the genus Pseudochelidon from Thailand. Thai National Scientific Papers, Fauna Series no. 1. Bangkok: Applied Scientific Research Corporation of Thailand.
Other references:
Anonymous. (1981) A search for the White-eyed River Martin, Pseudochelidon sirintarae, at Bung Boraphet, central Thailand. Bangkok: Association for the conservation of Wildlife of Thailand. Unpublished report.
Anonymous. (2000) Columnists’ Corner. Canberra Bird Notes 25: 120-125. [relevant citation?]
BirdLife International. (2000). Threatened Birds of the World. Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, Barcelona and Cambridge.
BirdLife International. (2001). Threatened birds of Asia: the BirdLife International Red Data Book. BirdLife International, Cambridge, U.K. [Relevant pages]
BirdLife International. (2012). Eurochelidon sirintarae. In: IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2012.1. (http://www.iucnredlist.org). Downloaded on 08 July 2012.
Butchart, S. H. M.; Collar, N. J.; Crosby, M. J. & Tobias, J. A. (2005). Asian enigmas: "Lost" and poorly known birds: targets for birders in Asia. Birding Asia 3: 41-49.
Butchart, Stuart H. M., Lowe, Stephen, Martin, Rob W., Symes, Andy, Westrip, James R. S. and Wheatley, Hannah. (2018a). Which bird species have gone extinct? A novel quantitative classification approach. Biological Conservation 227: 9-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2018.08.014
Butchart, Stuart H. M., Stattersfield, A. J. and Brooks, T. M. (2006). Going or gone: defining ‘Possibly Extinct’ species to give a truer picture of recent extinctions. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 126A: 7-24.
Butchart, Stuart H. M., Wheatley, Hannah, Lowe, Stephen, Westrip, James R. S., Symes, Andy and Martin, Rob W. (2018b). Data for: Which bird species have gone extinct? A novel quantitative classification approach. Mendeley Data, V1, doi: 10.17632/vvjhpmyxb4.1
Dickinson, Edward C. (1986). Does the White-eyed River-Martin Pseudochelidon sirintarae breed in China? Forktail 2: 95-96.
King, B. and Kanwanich, S. (1978). First wild sighting of the White-eyed River-Martin, Pseudochelidon sirintarae. Biol. Conserv. 13: 183-185.
King, W. B. (1978-1979). Red Data Book, 2. Aves. Second Edition. Morges, Switzerland: International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.
Martin, Thomas E., Bennett, Gareth C., Fairbairn, Andrew J. and Mooers, A. Ø. (2023). ‘Lost’ taxa and their conservation implications. Animal Conservation 26(1): 14-24. https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.12788 [Appendix S2 (1617 taxa not seen >10 years); Appendix S3 (562 taxa not seen >50 years)]
Parkes, K. C. (1987) Letter: was the Chinese White-eyed River-Martin an Oriental Pratincole? Forktail 3: 68-69.
Round, P. D. (1990) Bird of the month: White-eyed River-Martin. Bangkok Bird Club Bulletin 7(1): 10-11.
Seng Kim Hout. (2008). Searching for the critically endangered White-eyed River-martin in Cambodia. The Babbler: BirdLife in Indochina 2008: 41-42.
Sophasan, S. and Dobias, R. (1984). The fate of the 'Princess Bird', or White-eyed River Martin (Pseudochelidon sirintarae). Nat. Hist. Bull. Siam Soc. 32(1): 1-10.
Thonglongya, K. (1969). Report on an expedition in northern Thailand to look for breeding sites of Pseudochelidon sirintarae (21 May to 27 June 1969). Unpublished.
Tobias, Joe. (2000). Little known Oriental Bird: White-eyed River-Martin. Oriental Bird Club Bulletin 31.
Turner, A. K. and Rose, C. (1989). A Handbook to the Swallows and Martins of the World. London: Christopher Helm.
Tyrberg, Tommy. (2009). Holocene avian extinctions, pp. 63-106. In: Turvey, Samuel T. (ed.). Holocene Extinctions. Oxford, UK & New York, USA: Oxford University Press. xii + 352 pp.
Zusi, R. L. (1978) Remarks on the generic allocation of Pseudochelidon sirintarae. Bull. Brit. Orn. Club. 98(1): 13-15.