The Iwo Jima Rail or White-browed Crake (Porzana cinerea brevipes) was a rail native to the island of Iwo Jima

Iwo Jima

Iwo Jima, officially , is an island of the Japanese Volcano Islands chain, which lie south of the Ogasawara Islands and together with them form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The island is located south of mainland Tokyo and administered as part of Ogasawara, one of eight villages of Tokyo...

. The last reported sightings were in 1924, and the species is believed to be extinct. It was a subspecies of the White-browed Crake

White-browed Crake

The White-browed Crake is a species of bird in the Rallidae family. It is found in Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, Fiji, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Micronesia, New Caledonia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Thailand, and Vanuatu.Its natural...

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Description

The Iwo Jima Rail was coloured dark brown, with black mottles on its back, and a white colouration on its belly. The bird was typically about six inches long.

Ecology

The species cinereus was typically found in both brackish water and fresh water marshes. Iwo Jima, however, lacked these features, and the Iwo Jima subspecies lived in the brush and tall grass along rivulets on the island, as well as damp places within the original forest cover.

Extinction

When humans settled the island of Iwo Jima, they cleared away the existing forest

Forest

A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...

 to grow sugarcane

Sugarcane

Sugarcane refers to any of six to 37 species of tall perennial grasses of the genus Saccharum . Native to the warm temperate to tropical regions of South Asia, they have stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in sugar, and measure two to six metres tall...

. The forest clearance reduced the availability of fresh water, which forced the bird to come into the settlements to find water during the dry season. Here the birds often fell pray to cat

Cat

The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...

s. Combined with the introduction of rat

Rat

Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...

s to the island, this caused the extinction of the bird.

The last specimen of the bird was collected in 1911, and the last reported sightings were by T. T. Moniyama in 1924.