Banggai Crow

The Banggai crow (Corvus unicolor), known as kuuyak in the Banggai language, is a member of the crow family from Banggai regency in the province of Central Sulawesi in Indonesia. It was sometimes considered a subspecies of the slender-billed crow. it is actually rather distinct from this bird, resembling an entirely black piping crow overall. The species is a small crow, some 39 cm (15 in) long and completely black with a pale iris and a short tail. (Wikipedia, general species account).

Confirmation of the identity based on two specimens from Peleng was made by Pamela C. Rasmussen of the American Museum of Natural History in October 2009. This bird remained a complete enigma for a long time. In 2006, the status was considered as Possibly Extinct. was finally rediscovered during surveys on Peleng Island off the southeast coast of Sulawesi by Indonesian ornithologist Mochamad Indrawan in 2007 and 2008. 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. (Wikipedia, general species account).