The kākāwahie or Molokai creeper ( Paroreomyza flammea) is an extinct species of Hawaiian honeycreeper. It was found on the Hawaiian Islands of Molokai in Hawaii.
Description
The kākāwahie was long. This bird had the appearance of a ball of flame, especially males, which were scarlet red all around. The female had more of a brownish tinge to its belly. Its
Bird call was a chip like someone was cutting wood in the distance. They were discovered in the late 19th century when Scott Barchard Wilson, a British
Ornithology was lost in the fog. Wilson had shot down a female and two bright males. He collected several specimens and skins of other species of Molokai birds and then went back to
England. They were fast flitting birds but nevertheless, they were still
endangered. It is depicted in several paintings from the early 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.
Distribution
The kākāwahie lived in the
Akoke Forests. Its stronghold in the Akoke Forests was the
Kamakou Plateau, where it was seen before disappearing in 1963.
Habits
Apparently similar to the Maui Nui alauahio, it used its blunt and short
beak to peck out
from old naio (
Myoporum sandwicense) trees. It mainly fed on the
larvae of
and
Caterpillar; however in rare cases, it sipped
nectar from
, which included the naio. The exterior of its
nest was reportedly composed of
moss. The binomial name of this species,
Paroreomyza flammea, refers to its appearance being to similar to that of a ball of fire as it flit from tree to tree in search of
.
Extinction
While fairly common at the start of the 20th century the threat of extinction was raised in the 1930s.
Causes of extinction were probably similar to those of other Hawaiian forest birds. Habitat destruction, avian disease spread by introduced , as well as introduced are all likely major factors in its decline. Diseases spread by mosquitoes included avian malaria and fowlpox. These diseases caused the kākāwahie to grow ill and create lumps, which eventually caused paralysis and then death by starvation. Native Hawaiians trapped the birds for their red , which were then Featherwork in the Feather cloak and leis of alii (nobles and royalty). It was last sighted in Cloud forest wet forest at Ōhialele Plateau in 1963. There were reports of this bird holding on until the 1970s. There is an extremely remote possibility that this species holds on in remote, inaccessible regions of the Olokui plateau, a region where another possibly extinct bird, the Olomaʻo is protected. The species was proposed to be declared extinct by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in 2021, and was delisted from the Endangered Species Act on October 16, 2023.
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