Chamorro's Birds

Birds

The last wild Guam Flycatcher was seen in 1985;
The bird is extinct due to the brown tree snake.
http://whyfiles.org/2010/giant-snake-invasion/

• Fruit bats and local birds have become scarce in modern times primarily due to the World War II-era introduction of the brown tree snake, which is responsible for devastating the majority of native bird population in Guam. Therefore now hunting of birds is illegal in Guam.

Guam Rail
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GuamRail02.jpg

• Guam was home to two endemic and several native bird species before the introduction of the brown tree snake. One of them was ko'ko' in Chamorro or Guam Rail, which is unique to Guam because it is not found naturally on the other Mariana islands. And the other one was Guam Flycatcher,

Beliefs about the Utak (Phaethon lepturus)

 or white-tailed tropic bird

From Wikipedia: http://commons.wikimedia.org/
wiki/File:Phaethon_lepturus_(Warwick,_Bermuda).jpg

• "It is one of the most beautiful birds in the word. It has a set of two black markings on each wing. Its distinctive characterstic is the long, streaming feathers in its tail, which are longer than its body. Utaks feed on flying fish, other small fish, and squid. It can fly hundreds of miles in seach of food and can spend months at a time at sea. It is frequently seen at Two Lovers Point. It is very noise and sometimes it will circle a ship at sea and scream." Lawrence Cunningham description of the bird Utak
• The Chamorros believed that at night the utak would perch on a house, emit a long shrill cry and disappear into the night. The utak’s appearance and its cry signify that a young unwed woman is pregnant or someone in the household is about to die.
• An unwed mother was not considered shameful in ancient times. In ancient times me preferred to marry a pregnant woman, because the pregnancy was proof that she was fertile.
• In ancient times, the Chamorros had a fear of the bird because it was said to appear only when storms would blow it northward, so they connected the bird to a sign of bad things to come.

Totot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mariana_Fruit_Dove_RWD5.jpg

 It is little known if the Chamorros actually ate birds. Evidence suggests that a bird known as totot or Marianas fruit dove was found in Guam and it was domesticated and taught to speak by the Chamorros. However other sources claim that it was also eaten by the Chamorros. Even though the totot was eaten it was also kept as a pet. The totot is the official bird of Guam. Other famous birds found among the ancient Chamorros include Sasengat or Micronesian Megapode (Megapodius Iaperouse) and Nganga' Mariana Mallard (Anas oustaleti). 

Nganga'
http://10000birds.com/mallard-complexity.htm

Sasengat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Micronesian_megapode_6.jpg