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Extinct species of bird
The
black mamo
(
Drepanis funerea
), also known as the
hoa
, is an
extinct
species of
Hawaiian honeycreeper
once
endemic
to the island of
Molokai
; there is also
subfossil
evidence of it having lived on
Maui
.
[3]
Description
[
edit
]
Laysan millerbird
and black mamo specimens
It measured 8 inches (20 cm) from bill to tail, and was black with faded white primaries and yellow at the base of the bill. The highly decurved bill was longer in the male. Often the forehead would be dusted with pollen of its favorite food, the
Lobelia
. The mamo's song was a group of nose whistles that sounded like a flute along with a long held out trill. This bird has had many names including
Molokai mamo
,
o’o nuku’umu
, which meant "o’o with sucking beak", and
Perkins's mamo
, after ornithologist
R.C.L Perkins
who produced most of the information about this species.
By habit an understory bird, it was affected by the introduction of cattle and deer which destroyed much of its habitat, as well as direct and egg predation by introduced rats and mongooses.
It was discovered in 1893 in the
Pelekuna Valley
, and named
Drepanis funerea
by Perkins because it appeared to him to be a dark mourning bird.
The last specimen was collected in 1907 by
William Alanson Bryan
.
Tim Flannery
quoted him as having written, "To my joy I found the mangled remains hanging in the tree in a thick bunch of leaves, six feet or more beyond where it had been sitting." Even if Bryan did not shoot the last black mamo, sightings stopped within a few years, and a large-scale search for this bird in 1936 found no specimens.
Preserved specimens of the black mamo include the ones at
Bremen
,
Boston
,
Honolulu
,
London
and
New York City
.
References
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Cited sources
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External links
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