Scale throat moho

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Scale throat moho
Kauaioo.jpg

Scaled throated moho ( Moho braccatus )

Systematics
Order : Passerines (Passeriformes)
Subordination : Songbirds (passeri)
Superfamily : Bombycilloidea
Family : Mohoidae
Genre : Kraustails ( Moho )
Type : Scale throat moho
Scientific name
Moho braccatus
( Cassin , 1855)

The Kaua'i'Ō'ō ( Moho braccatus ), also known as Kauai Kraus tail or Kaua'i'Ō'ō referred to is a most likely extinct songbirds from the genus of Kraus tails . It was endemic to Kaua'i in the Hawaiian Archipelago.

description

The Schuppenkehlmoho reached a length of 20 centimeters. The head was black with a few white vertical lines. The tail was black, the central control feathers were elongated. The wings were black with a white field around the edges. The light axillary feathers were nondescript gray-tan. The rest of the top was slate brown. Flanks and rump were rust-red. The chest and throat feathers were black and each had a white subterminal band, which gave the chest and throat area a scale-like appearance. This was more pronounced in the female than in the male. The rest of the underside was slate brown. The thighs were feathered yellow. The iris was light yellow. Beak and feet were black.

In juveniles, the underside, beak, and legs were lighter in color than in adult birds. The white field was missing on the wings and the legs were featherless. The iris was blue-gray.

Way of life

Scale throat moho

The scallop-throated moho was a lively bird that moved as fast as an arrow through the leaves or undergrowth when foraging, but could not be seen as high above the trees as the magnificent moho . His diet consisted of cockroaches , spiders , centipedes , crickets , other insects and caterpillars , which he pecked from the loose bark. Nectar of 'Ōhi'a -Trees and lobelia and the fleshy bracts of IEIE Vine complemented the food spectrum. The call, which sounded like a took took , was described as the loudest of all the forest birds on Kaua'i. His singing consisted of flute-like tones. In May 1971 the first nest of the scallop-throat moho was discovered. It was in a tree hollow and was padded with small twigs and grass. The young bird was about 10 days old.

die out

The scallop-throated moho was described as fairly common as late as 1899, but ornithologist George Campbell Munro was unable to detect a specimen on expeditions in 1928 and 1936 . In 1940 the ornithologist Walter Raymond Donaghho heard a chant that could probably have been that of the scallop-throat moho. But afterwards he wasn't sure anymore. It was not until 1960 that a small population of around 34 individuals was rediscovered in the dense Alakaʻi swamp forest on Mount Waiʻaleʻale on Kauaʻi at an altitude of 1000 m. In 1975 ornithologists Harold Douglas Pratt and Robert Shallenberger visited the Alakaʻi swamp and were able to photograph and film a male. During the next expedition in 1981 a couple was discovered. After Hurricane Iwa in 1982, the female disappeared. The male was last observed in 1985 and last heard in 1987. After failed search expeditions in 1989 and after Hurricane Iniki in 1993, the species was added to the IUCN 's list of extinct bird species in 2000 . Habitat destruction, introduced house rats and pigs, and also introduced mosquitoes , which spread bird malaria and birdpox in Hawaii and caused species extinction among the endemic avifauna, are suspected as possible causes for the extinction of the scallop- throated moho. With the Schuppenkehlmoho the last species of the curly tail genus was exterminated within 150 years. There are over 100 bellows in around 16 museum collections, including Leiden (Netherlands), Brussels (Belgium), Tring (England), Paris (France), Stockholm (Sweden), Frankfurt (Germany), Dresden (Germany), New York (USA) ), Los Angeles (USA) and Honolulu (USA).

literature

  • Sheila Conant, H. Douglas Pratt, Robert J. Shallenberger: Reflections on a 1975 expedition to the lost world of the Alakai and other notes on the natural history, systematics, and conservation of Kauai birds. In: Wilson Bulletin. Volume 110, No. 1, 1998, pp. 1–22 ( PDF file; 2.05 MB; full text ).
  • James C. Greenway: Extinct and Vanishing Birds of the World. Dover Publications Inc., New York 1967, ISBN 0-486-21869-4 .
  • Errol Fuller: Extinct Birds. Facts on File, New York 2000, ISBN 0-8160-1833-2 .
  • George Campbell Munro: Birds of Hawaii. Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc., Rutland VT. 1960, ISBN 0-8048-0063-4 .
  • Daniel Lewis: Counting Extinctions: Observing and Surveying the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō and Hawaiian Forest Bird Habitat. In: Belonging on an Island. Birds, Extinction and Evolution in Hawaii. Yale University Press, London 2018, ISBN 978-0-300-22964-6 , pp. 52-127.

Web links

Commons : Schuppenkehlmoho ( Moho braccatus )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files