Banggai Crow

The Banggai Crow, Corvus unicolor, is a member of the crow family. It is listed as a critically endangered species because of the lack of recent records on the species and knowledge of habitat loss and might even be extinct already, but very little is known about this species.

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 medium-sized crow, some 39 cm long and completely black with a dark iris and a short tail.

The Banggai Crow is thought to live in subtropical or tropical lowlands and moist forest. It is only known from two specimens taken from an unknown island in the Banggai Archipelago - probably in 1884/1885 -, and visits to the archipelago in 1991 and 1996 yielded no unequivocal records of the species, leading some to believe it is extinct. The decline of the Banggai Crow is thought to be primarily due to habitat loss and degradation through agriculture and extraction.

This bird remains a complete enigma. Listed as Vulnerable in the 1994 IUCN Red List, it was uplisted to Endangered in 2000. In 2006, it was further uplisted to Possibly Extinct. Though this might indeed be correct, it was at least technically in error as no dedicated effort has ever been made to search for it, and a single bird which might have been this species was seen in 1991 or 1996. Thus, its status is corrected to Critically Endangered 2007 Red List issue.