The Daito wren (Troglodytes troglodytes orii) is a disputed subspecies of the Eurasian wren. It is known only by the type specimen, a male collected in 1938 on Minami Daitō-jima, the main island of the Daito Archipelago east of Okinawa. Yamashina described the bird as a new subspecies after comparing it with 114 specimens from surrounding areas and under the impression that the Eurasian wren is a fairly sedentary bird, not liable to be drifted astray over long distances. Its scientific name is named after Yamashina's specimen collector, Orii Hyōjirō.[1]
| Daito wren | |
|---|---|
Extinct (ca. 1940) | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Troglodytidae |
| Genus: | Troglodytes |
| Species: | |
| Subspecies: | †T. t. orii |
| Trinomial name | |
| †Troglodytes troglodytes orii Yamashina, 1938 | |
However, vagrant Eurasian wrens have more recently been found on Yonaguni and Okinawa Islands. Thus, it has been suggested that the Daito bird was just a straggler from one of the Honshū (T. t. fumigatus), the Yakushima/Tanegashima (T. t. ogawae) or the Izu Islands (T. t. mosukei) populations.[2] However, many bird populations on islands south of Japan also became extinct in the late 1930s as settlement and civilian and military construction destroyed large amounts of habitat. As the specimen exists (Yamashina Institute for Ornithology collection No. 25476), it should be possible to resolve its status by DNA analysis.
This subspecies is not accepted by either the IOC World Bird List,[3] or the AviList.[4]
References
edit- ↑ Yamashina, Yoshimaro (1938): A New Subspecies of Troglodytes troglodytes from the Borodino Islands. Tori 10: 227–228.
- ↑ Vaurie, Charles (1955): Systematic notes on Palearctic birds. No. 16, Troglodytinae, Cinclidae, and Prunellidae. American Museum Novitates 1751: 1-25. PDF fulltext
- ↑ "Dapple-throats, sugarbirds, fairy-bluebirds, kinglets, Elachura, hyliotas, wrens, gnatcatchers – IOC World Bird List". IOC World Bird List – Version 15.2. 2026-04-13. Retrieved 2026-04-24.
- ↑ AviList Core Team (2025). "AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025". doi:10.2173/avilist.v2025. Retrieved 2026-04-24.
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