Aegotheles savesi is endemic to New Caledonia (to France). It is known from a specimen collected in 1880 at Païta, near Nouméa⁵, a second specimen dated 1915 recently discovered in an Italian museum⁸, a possible record from the island of Maré⁶, one found dead (but not retained) in the Tchamba valley in the 1950s², one shot close to Païta in 1960^2,4 and a sighting in 1998 in the Rivière Ni valley^2,9. Calls similar to those of the allopatric A. cristatus were heard in 1996 and 1998. Given that local people do not know this distinctive species and that there have been no other records from recent surveys, it must occur in very low numbers and/or be restricted to the most remote forest massifs such as Kouakoue^2,9.