Banggai Crow
The Banggai Crow (Corvus unicolor) is a member of the crow family from Banggai in Indonesia.
It is listed as critically endangered by IUCN. It was feared extinct, but was finally rediscovered during surveys on Peleng Island by Indonesian ornithologist Mochamad Indrawan in 2007 and 2008.
It was sometimes considered a subspecies of the Slender-billed Crow, but it is actually rather distinct from this bird, resembling an entirely black Piping Crow overall. The Banggai Crow is a small crow, some 39 cm long and completely black with a pale iris and a short tail.
For more than a century, it was known from only two specimens taken from an unknown island in the Banggai Archipelago - probably in 1884/1885.
Visits to the archipelago in 1991 and 1996 yielded no unequivocal records of the species, leading some to believe it was extinct. During a survey conducted between 2007 and 2008 and partially financed by the Zoological Society for the Conservation of Species and Populations (Germany)