| Kauai 'Akialoa | |
|---|---|
| Akialoa stejnegeri. | |
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Drepanididae |
| Genus: | Akialoa |
| Species: | A. stejnegeri |
| Binomial name | |
| Akialoa stejnegeri (Wilson, 1889) |
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| Synonyms | |
|
Hemignathus obscurus (Gmelin, 1788) pro parte |
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The Kauai 'Akialoa (Akialoa stejnegeri) was a species of finch in the Fringillidae family. It was endemic to the island of Kauai, Hawaii. It became extinct due to introduced avian disease and habitat loss. The Kaua`i `Akialoa was about seven and a half inches in long and has a very long bill that curved down, it covered one third of its length. The adult males was bright olive-yellow on top and yellow on the bottom. The throat, breast, and sides of the body were olive-yellow. The Females, however, was green-gray above and had a shorter bill.
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The Kaua`i `Akialoa was believed to have survived in forests above 1,148 feet (350 m) above sea level, but has been observed frequently flying to the lower elevations of the island. This once very rare and unique bird used its long curved bill to reach the nectar of `ohi`a and bromeliads blossoms. It also eats insects from under tree bark and from under mats of lichens and moss on trees.
The Kaua`i `Akialoa, like all the other `Akialoa subspecies, were rare even when they were first discovered in the 18th century. According to fossil records, their numbers declined extremely in the early 20th century. Many people believe that the birds frequent ventures to lower elevations were its undoing, it was probably caused by low elevation avian diseases. The last documented Kaua'i `Akialoa was seen in 1965. `Akialoa were once known on all of the other larger Hawaiian islands, but the Kaua`i species seems to have outlived all the rest. Unfortunately, scientists fear that even this bird might have gone extinct. Because these birds were so rare, not much is known about their life history.
Unusual changes to low elevation ecosystems caused the downfall of many if not all major forest birds on Kaua`i. These changes began when the first Polynesians settled on the island and cleared some of the healthy land for crops. With every new settler, unnative plants and animals entered the Hawaiian Islands. Today, only about 40,000 acres (160 km2) of Kaua`i have not been drastically altered. Many avian diseases and parasites also pose a major threat to Hawai`i's forest birds.
The Forest Reserve Act of 1903 created the way to protecting watershed and forests on the island. In 1907, the Hawaiian Territorial Legislature passed a law to protect all native perching birds. In 1964, two scientists, F. Richardson and J. Bowles, published a survey of the birds of Kaua'i and introduced the world to these birds' beautiful and fragile existence.
The Kaua'i '`Akialoa was put down as an endangered species in 1967 under the Federal Endangered Species Act. The Service began bird surveys on Kaua'i during the period of 1968-1973. Extensive work on the Puaiohi, another rare Kaua`i forest bird, has yielded no sightings of the Kaua`i `Akialoa.