September 17th 2011
Biodiversity Corner - Pere Noir ek Maisson
Jeannette Victor
Forestry Department
Photos © Tseng Chiu-wen Hank

I often wonder how many of us actually take note of our environment and the different species of animals and plants that are all around us. We often see plants and animals but do not know them by their local name let alone their scientific name. Let’s see how well we observe them by identifying the common name of this bird.

The scientific name of this bird is Loxigilla noctis sclateri and is also one of the endemic subspecies of our island. The local name is Pere Noir for male and Maisson for female. Can you guess the common name?

This bird is seen everywhere, they fly in your homes and business places feeding on food scraps. The male is black with a reddish-brown patch to the chest area unlike the female that has dark olive-grey upper parts, some brown on the wings and grayish under parts.

It builds a round nest with a side entrance in a bush or low tree. It usually lays two or three spotted eggs during the months of February to August. It feeds mainly on seeds but also thrives on buds and petals of flowers as well as fruits. Pere Noir has a sharp shrill or a sharp ‘tseep-tseep’ as its call.

Have you guessed what bird I have just described or do you want to solve this simple puzzle to find out the common name?

Solve: The numbers provided correspond to the letters in the alphabet.

...............B . I .... R . D
Example: 2 – 9 – 18 - 4

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
12 -5-19-19-5-18 1-14-20-9-12-12-5-1-14 2 -21-12-12-6-9-14-3-8

For more information feel free to call the Forestry Department @ 468-5645/48 or visit our blog: forestryeeunit.blogspot.com

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