Moloka‘i ‘Ō‘ō

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Moloka‘i ‘Ō‘ō

Moloka‘i ‘Ō‘ō

Conservation status

Extinct

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Meliphagidae
Genus:	Moho
Species:	M. bishopi

Binomial name

Moho bishopi
Rothschild, 1893

Synonyms

Acrulocercus bishopi

The Moloka‘i ‘Ō‘ō or Bishop's ‘Ō‘ō (Moho bishopi) is an extinct bird from the Moho genus within the family of the honeyeaters (Meliphagidae). Lionel Walter Rothschild named it after Charles Reed Bishop, the founder of the Bishop Museum.

1 Description
2 Distribution
3 Ecology
4 Extinction
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Description

It was discovered in 1892 by Henry C. Palmer, a bird collector for Lord Rothschild. Its length was about 29 centimetres. The tail had reached a length of 10 centimetres. The plumage was general glossy black with yellow feather tufts on the maxillaries, beneath the wings and the undertail coverts.

[edit] Distribution

It was endemic to the montane forests in the eastern of the Hawaiian Island of Molokai. Subfossil bone founds are known from Maui.

[edit] Ecology

Little is known about its ecology. It was nectavorous and fed from flower nectar of the Campanulaceae family.

[edit] Extinction

The reasons for its extinction were habitat destruction through deforestation, the hunting through introduced mammals, the hunting due to the much sought yellow feathers to create the precious capes for the nobilities as well as by diseases which were introduced by mosquitoes. It was last seen in 1904 by ornithologist George Campbell Munro. In 1915 Munro tried to verify reports of eventual sightings but he never found this bird again. In 1981 there was an allegedly rediscovery on Maui. But this was never confirmed.

[edit] References

Munro, George C. (1944 and its revised 2nd. edition from 1960): Birds of Hawaii
Flannery, Tim & Schouten, Peter (2001): A Gap in Nature
Fuller, Errol (2000): Extinct Birds
Day, David (1981): The Doomsday Book of Animals
Greenway, James C. (1967): Extinct and Vanishing Birds of the World
Luther, Dieter (2005): Die ausgestorbenen Vögel der Welt