‘Akeke‘e

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ʻAkekeʻe

Male above, female below

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Fringillidae
Genus:	Loxops
Species:	L. caeruleirostris

Binomial name

Loxops caeruleirostris
Wilson, 1890

The ʻAkekeʻe is a bird species in the family Fringillidae, where it is placed in the Hawaiian honeycreeper genus Loxops. It is endemic to the island of Kauaʻi where it is found in small numbers in higher elevations. Because of the unusual bill and similar size and shape, the ʻAkekeʻe and the three ʻAkepas were for some time classified as a single species. This was eventually changed, because of the ʻAkekeʻe's color, nesting behavior and calls.

It is a greenish-yellow bird with a black mask around the eye (especially prominent in the male) and a bluish bill, unlike the ʻAkepas which are usually red, canary-yellow or orange, without black, and have horn-colored bills. Their bill-tips are crossed over, though not bent as in distantly-related Fringillidae the crossbills (Loxia). The ʻAkekeʻe's call is softer than its relatives.

The ʻAkekeʻe uses its bill like scissors to cut open buds in search of insects to eat. It also takes the nectar to certain trees as part of its diet. This bird creates nests from simple twigs while the ʻAkepas use tree cavities as their nest sites.

The ʻAkekeʻe is today only found in the Waimea Canyon State Park, Alakai Wilderness Area and Kōkeʻe State Park. It has been heading toward extinction because of its lack of tolerance to alteration of its habitat.

For one thing, the ʻAkekeʻe is threatened by the introduction of plants like the banana pōka (Passiflora tarminiana), a passionflower vine, that displace the native plants. Feral pigs and feral goats also destroy native growth. Eventually, the insects on which the ʻAkekeʻe feeds will disappear from such areas, as they do not find their usual host plants anymore. Plasmodium relictum avian malaria and fowlpox transitted by accidentially introduced mosquitos continues to wreak havoc on the ʻAkekeʻ; this is the reason why these birds are hardly ever found anymore below 1,100 meters ASL, but only in higher regions where the mosquitos do not occur yet. Forest clearing in different parts of the island of Kauaʻi has caused a major loss of habitat of many birds.

Formerly classified as an Endangered species by the IUCN^[1], recent research shows that its numbers are decreasing more and more rapidly and that it is on the brink of extinction. It is consequently uplisted to Critically Endangered status in 2008^[2].