Narrow feather honeyeater

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Narrow feather honeyeater
Chaetoptila angustipluma.jpg

Narrow Feather Honeyeater ( Chaetoptila angustipluma )

Systematics
Order : Passerines (Passeriformes)
Subordination : Songbirds (passeri)
Superfamily : Bombycilloidea
Family : Mohoidae
Genre : Chaetoptila
Type : Narrow feather honeyeater
Scientific name of the  genus
Chaetoptila
GR Gray , 1869
Scientific name of the  species
Chaetoptila angustipluma
( Peale , 1848)

The kioea , Schmalfedermoho or kåñëa ( Chaetoptila angustipluma ) is probably extinct species of Hawaii that were previously the family of honeyeater zuordnete. On the basis of new molecular genetic analyzes it was found that the similarity with the honeyeater is based solely on convergence and that both the kioea and the Kraustails are probably more closely related to the waxwings of the New World. Hence the new Mohoidae family was described in 2008 .

description

The length of the narrow-feathered honey eater was 33 centimeters. The upper side was predominantly greenish-brown, the underside was a dirty white color. The dark brown eyes were surrounded by a mask-like stripe of eyes. His name kioea means "long-legged" in the Hawaiian language.

distribution and habitat

Its distribution was probably limited to the area of ​​the Kīlauea volcano on the largest island in Hawaii ( Big Island ). Here he lived in mountain forests. Information that it also occurred on Molokaʻi is probably based on a confusion with the bristle curlew ( Numenius tahitiensis ), which is also known as Kioea . In 1978, the paleontologist Yosihiko H. Sinoto discovered the fossil remains of a bird in a cave near Barbers Point , Oʻahu , whose bones were very similar to those of the narrow-feathered honey eater. Therefore, it is assumed that at least one subspecies also occurred on the island of Oahu.

Way of life and behavior

Almost nothing is known about the bird's way of life. Like the other extinct Hawaiian honeyeater, the curlytail , it lived in the canopy and ate nectar , insects and caterpillars .

die out

In 1840 the two American naturalists Charles Pickering and Titian Ramsay Peale received the type specimen of the narrow-feathered honey eater. In 1859 the bird collector James D. Mills provided the last reliable evidence of this species and shot a large number of individuals near Hilo . Little is known about the reasons for its extinction. Since it was considered very rare even before the arrival of the Europeans, it is assumed that it could have been predominantly natural causes. There are only four museum specimens in total, located in Cambridge , the Bishop Museum in Honolulu , the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and the American Museum of Natural History in New York City .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fleischer, RC, HF James & SL Olson. 2008: Convergent evolution of Hawaiian and Australo-Papuan honeyeaters from distant songbird ancestors. Current Biology 18: 1-5.
  2. ^ Kioea in Hawaiian Dictionaries

literature

  • Dieter Luther: The extinct birds of the world . Westarp Sciences, 1986, ISBN 3-89432-213-6 .

Web links

Commons : Schmalfederhonigfresser ( Chaetoptila angustipluma )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files