Hawaii Akialoa
| Hawaii Akialoa | ||||||||||||
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Hawaiian Akialoa ( Hemignathus obscurus ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Hemignathus obscurus | ||||||||||||
| ( Gmelin , 1788) |
The Hawaiian Akialoa ( Hemignathus obscurus , Syn .: Akialoa obscura ) is an extinct bird species from the subfamily of the honeysuckle . It occurred on the Hawaiian Big Island until at least 1940 .
description
The 16 to 19 cm tall bird had green dorsal plumage and the belly was yellowish. The long, hook-shaped beak was gray, the legs were brown. To communicate, the bird uttered loud, shrill calls, but some sources say that it had a trill song.
Way of life
The birds looked for food, especially insects, on branches, under the bark of trees and on the ground. Their long curved beak served as a tool. In addition, they used their long tubular tongues to fetch nectar from the flowering plants of the island's vegetation.
Reproduction
For breeding, the female built a nest of blades of grass on the ground.
habitat
This species was only found in the forest of the island mountain Koa-'Ohi ' at heights of 200 to 500 meters.
die out
The species was last detected in 1940. The reasons for the extinction are the destruction of their habitat by the deforestation of the island forests and the introduction of bird malaria by introduced mosquitoes .
literature
- Christopher M. Perrins : The Great Encyclopedia of Birds. S. 341, Orbis Verlag, 1996, ISBN 3-572-00810-7 .
- Milos Andera (tesch.): Endangered animals . Deut. Translation: Günter Brehmer p. 136, Publisher: Dausien, Hanau 1998, ISBN 3-7684-2800-1 .
- Christopher M. Perrins (Ed.): The FSVO encyclopedia birds of the world. Translated from the English by Einhard Bezzel. BLV, Munich / Vienna / Zurich 2004, ISBN 978-3-405-16682-3 , pp. 616–617 (title of the English original edition: The New Encyclopedia Of Birds. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2003).
Web links
- Akialoa obscura inthe IUCN 2012 Red List of Threatened Species . 2. Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved January 5, 2013.