White-cheeked honeycreeper
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White-cheeked honeycreeper ( Melamprosops phaeosoma ) |
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| Casey & Jacobi , 1974 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Melamprosops phaeosoma | ||||||||||||
| Casey & Jacobi, 1974 |
The Po'ouli ( Melamprosops phaeosoma ), also called Po'ouli or Maui Gimpel called, is probably extinct Singvogelart from the tribe of clothes birds . The species was first discovered on the Hawaiian island of Maui in 1973 and scientifically described in 1974. The white-cheeked honeycreeper represented the only species of the genus Melamprosops .
description
The white-cheeked clothes bird reached a size of 14 centimeters and a weight of 25.5 grams. The build was plump and the tail short. The elongated beak was bent slightly downwards. The plumage was brown on the top and light brown to off-white on the underside. A strongly contrasting, triangular black mask surrounded the beak and ran behind the eyes. The cheeks were gray above and mostly white below. Forehead and bonnet were gray. From the back of the head to the back, the color gradually turned into an olive brown. The flanks were olive or tan. The leg fletching and the under tail covers were deep cinnamon. The iris was brown, the beak and legs were black. The sexes looked the same. In their youthful dress, the birds showed a smaller mask, a reddish top and a leather-colored underside. The gray tones were missing above the mask. The lower beak had a pink tip.
Vocalizations
The call was a sharp chit-chit-chit , the alarm call a faster chit-chit-chu-chit . Occasionally a whistling chee-up or chev could be heard, reminiscent of the call of the parrot- beaked hawk -bird ( Pseudonestor xantophrys ). The chant consisted of a disordered series of similar tones that were quickened and raised in height.
habitat
The white-cheeked honeycreeper was found in the undergrowth of dense Oʻhia rainforests ( Metrosideros polymorpha ) at altitudes between 1,400 and 2,100 m. Before the arrival of the settlers on Maui, the species appeared to be widespread in arid and semi-arid forests.
Foraging
The diet consisted of snails, insects and spiders. Occasionally it fed on the small fruits of the species Cheirodendron trigynum . The widespread use of several species of land snails native to Hawaii was an unusual specialization for Hawaii; no other species of bird fed on these land snails. He jumped on the floor. He preyed on his food hanging in the leaves or boring and by peeling the bark in the branches.
Reproduction
Two nests are known from nature, which were discovered in March and April. The male's courtship consisted of intense singing and circling a female in the canopy of the nest tree or on the neighboring trees. The male fed the female throughout the nestling period. The nest, an open bowl made of moss and bare branches of Styphelia tameiameiae at the base , was built by both sexes. The clutch consisted of one or two whitish eggs with brown spots that were incubated by the female alone. The chicks hatched early in the morning, presumably two days apart. The male fed both the female and the chicks. A young bird left the nest after 21 days.
status
When the white-cheeked honeysuckle was discovered in 1973 by students of the University of Hawaiʻi System during an excursion to the slopes of Haleakalā , the population was estimated at around 200 specimens in a region of around 1,300 hectares. At this point in time, the species' situation did not appear to be of concern. The introduction of foreign plants and animals had put the native fauna and flora under considerable pressure, so that numerous endemic species of Hawaii were already extinct. However, the region in which the white-cheeked honeycreeper was observed was so remote and potentially undisturbed that this threat was not seen as a threat to its existence.
In 1980, several ornithologists had come to the conclusion that the number of white-cheeked honeysuckles might also be declining. A census in 1981 showed a population of around 150 individuals. Within the Haleakalā National Park , the Hanawi Natural Area Reserve was established with a size of 30 square kilometers to protect the population of the species. It was worrying that feral domestic pigs in the region were increasingly destroying the undergrowth that the white-cheeked honeydew bird relied on to forage. The fencing of the higher forests carried out at the beginning of the 1990s was too late to have any effect. As was later found out, the garlic snail ( Oxychilus alliarius ), which was introduced to Hawaii, also spread increasingly in the forests of the islands. This species of snail also fed on land snail species endemic to Hawaii.
During a survey in 1994, only ten white-cheeked honeysuckles were counted, including some not yet sexually mature individuals. In 1997 only one female and two males were still alive, but their territories were so far apart that the birds would never meet. As one of the last steps, an attempt was made to relocate the female to the territory of one of the males. The female was relocated on April 4, 2002 and released at nightfall in the male's territory in the hope that she would meet the male the following day. However, the female immediately returned to her own territory. As a final measure, all three remaining birds were to be caught and a breed in human care established with them. The first bird was caught in September 2004, but died on November 28, 2004 at the San Diego Zoo of avian malaria , which, along with the destruction of the habitat by feral domestic pigs between 1970 and 1977, is believed to be the main cause of the species' disappearance. The other two birds were no longer found.
Subfossil finds suggest that the white-cheeked honeycreeper was more widespread around the Haleakalā volcano before the settlers arrived .
literature
- Dominic Couzens : Rare Birds - Survivors, Evolution Losers and the Lost. Haupt Verlag, Bern 2011, ISBN 978-3-258-07629-4 .
- Harold Douglas Pratt : The Hawaiian Honeycreepers . Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-19-854653-5 .
- Harold Douglas Pratt: Drepanididae (Hawaiian Honeycreepers) In: Del Hoyo, J .; Elliot, A. & Christie D. (Editors). (2010). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 15: Weavers to New World Warblers . Lynx Edicions, ISBN 978-84-96553-68-2 .
- Tonnie LC Casey & James D. Jacobi (1974). A new genus and species of bird from the island of Maui, Hawaii (Passeriformes: Drepanididae) . Occasional Papers of the BP Bishop Museum 24 (12): 215-226. (first scientific description).
- Thane K. Pratt , Cameron B. Kepler , Tonnie L. Casey: Poo-uli (Melamprosops phaeosoma) , version 2.0. In: AF Poole & Frank B. Gill (Eds.): Birds of North America , Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. 1997.
Web links
- BirdLife Species Factsheet
- Rare bird falls to avian malaria
- Melamprosops phaeosoma inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013.1. Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved September 4, 2013.