Oahu-Akialoa
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Oahu Akialoa ( Hemignathus ellisianus ) |
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| Hemignathus ellisianus | ||||||||||||
| ( Gray , 1860) |
The Oahu Akialoa ( Hemignathus ellisianus ) is an extinct species of songbird from the subfamily of the honeycreeper . In addition to the nominate form Hemignathus ellisianus ellisianus from the island of Oahu , the also extinct subspecies Hemignathus ellisianus lanaiensis from the island of Lānaʻi and Hemignathus ellisianus steijnegeri from the island of Kauaʻi are known. Both subspecies were originally considered separate species, but were reclassified as subspecies on the recommendation of the American Ornithologists' Union . The specific epithet ellisianus honors William Ellis , the mate of the ship's doctor on the Cook Expedition, who was the first person to draw several bird species in Hawaii.
features
The holotype of the nominate form was collected by Ferdinand Deppe in 1837 . Today it is kept in the Museum of Natural History at the Humboldt University in Berlin and is 16.5 cm long. The plumage is mostly dull olive green and lighter on the chest. The wings and tail are brownish olive with light olive edges. Legs and feet are brown.
die out
Of the type specimens of the nominate form that Deppe collected in 1837, only one bellows is left today. In the 1840s, John Kirk Townsend (1809-1851) caught another specimen in the Nuʻuanu Valley on Oʻahu, which is in the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia . Several other expeditions were unsuccessful until Robert Cyril Layton Perkins (1866–1955) sighted another pair in October 1892 above the Nu'uanu Valley. Perkins wrote in 1903:
“[…] On one occasion I saw a pair of this species. One bird chased the other over a narrow ridge high up in the mountains. The leading bird crossed the ridge and flew down into a deep ravine on the other side. It squeaked as it flew while the other bird perched in a 'thi'a tree at the top of the ridge about 10 meters away from me. When I shot the latter bird, it fell over the steep ridge. After a long search, I was unable to find the bird. I noticed the dark plumage on the upper side, which in no way comes close to the more yellowish coloration of other bird species with which I was familiar. "
Perkins hunted around Waolani for several days and spent a night out in the open on the ridge, but never again saw a bird that looked like the Oahu Akialoa.
In 1935, 1936 and 1937 there are said to have been three more sightings of the nominate form on Mount Ka'ala and on the Kipapa Trail about 4 km above Mililani, but these are considered questionable. Another record of Mount Pālehua above Makakilo, which comes from John d'Arcy Northwood (1897–1972) in 1939, was quite detailed and is considered credible by some authors.
The causes of extinction were presumably habitat loss and introduced diseases.
literature
- Hume, Julian P., Michael P. Walters: Extinct Birds . 1st edition. T & AD Poyser, London 2012, ISBN 978-1-4081-5725-1 , Fringillidae, pp. 295-296 .
- H. Douglas Pratt: The Hawaiian Honecreepers . In: CM Perrins, WJ Bock, J. Kikkawa (Eds.): Bird Families of the World . 1st edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York 2005, ISBN 0-19-854653-X , pp. 246-247 .
- Dieter Luther: The extinct birds of the world . 5th edition. Westarp Wissenschaften-Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Hohenwarsleben 2005, ISBN 3-89432-213-6 , p. 167 .
- Munro, George Campbell: Birds of Hawaii . 9th edition. Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc., Rutland, Vermont 1982, ISBN 0-8048-0063-4 , pp. 115 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ American Ornithologists' Union 7th Edition (1998)
- ↑ SL Olson, HF James: Nomenclature of the Hawaiian Akialoas and Nukupuus (Aves: Drepanidini). In: Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 108, 1995, pp. 373-387.
- ^ RCL Perkins: Vertebrata. In: Fauna Hawaiiensis or the zoology of the Sandwich. Volume 1, Pt IV: Isles, Hawaiian. Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK 1903, pp. 365-466.
- ↑ a b R.L. Pyle, P. Pyle: The Birds of the Hawaiian Islands: Occurrence, History, Distribution, and Status. BP Bishop Museum, Honolulu, HI, USA 2009. Version 1 (December 31, 2009)
- ↑ WR Donaghho: A Resume of the 'Extinct' Hawaiian species With listings of Sight Records and Reports During My Sojourn in the Islands. In: Elepaio. 23, 1963, pp. 55-58.
- ^ JC Greenway: Extinct and Vanishing Birds of the World. Dover Publications, New York 1967.
- ↑ Winston E. Banko: History of endemic Hawaiian birds: Forest birds: ʻAkialoa, Nukupuʻu & ʻAkiapōlāʻau. Population histories-Species accounts, Part 1. Avian History Report 9th Cooperative National Park Resources Studies Unit, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1984.
- ^ NJ Collar, MJ Crosby, AJ Stattersfield: Birds to watch 2: the world list of threatened birds. BirdLife International, Cambridge, UK 1994.
Web links
- BirdLife Species Factsheet - Greater Akiaoloa
- Hemignathus ellisianus onthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved October 19, 2013.