ʻĀmaui
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ʻĀmaui | ||||||||||||||
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Myadestes woahensis (Bloxam, 1899) |
The Oahu Thrush which was endemic to the island Oahu was the first of its genus to go extinct. Its island name Amaui is a corruption as the Hawaiians considered all the Thrushes from Maui, Molokai, Lanai and Oahu to be one species, the Amaui. It was a large brownish songbird that lived in much of the highland forests on Oahu. They may have been mostly fruit eaters like many of the other Hawaiian Thrushes. Due to its quick extinction, we do not know much about the Amaui. It may have nested in trees like the Omao or nested in crevices like the extinct Kamao. Its song was reported to be similar to the Molokai Olama’o as it may be its closest relative. It went extinct due to serious decline in useable habitat. Mosquitos that were introduced about thirty years earlier and caused the birds to evacuate what little good habitat was left in the low altitude areas of Oahu and if the birds did not leave, they would have contracted the avian diseases and they would have perished. Birds that retreated to upper elevations, would have been harassed by the rats as they attacked the berries and stolen chicks from the last nests. The species extinction was not a well recorded one, as no one has a specific year when the Amaui was last identified. Scientists believe that the species had vanished between 1840 to 1860, though it is most likely during the late 1850s. It is known from a single specimen taken in 1825 (now lost) and subfossil bones. The name derives from manu a Māui: "Māui's bird.