Bishop's O'o (Moho bishopi)

Year Last Seen:

1904

Comments:

This species was formerly found in the Hawaiian Islands, USA, but there have been no confirmed records since 1904 and is now considered Extinct. A single bird thought to be this species was observed in 1981 on the north-east slope of Haleakala but there have been no further confirmed records despite intensive searching. Habitat loss, predation and disease were the likely causes of its extinction.

Habitat:

It occurred in low and high altitude moist forest.

Causes:

Habitat destruction caused by conversion to agriculture and grazing by feral mammals inevitably initiated the species' decline, with introduced black rat Rattus rattus and the spread of disease carried by introduced mosquitoes blamed for the population crash early in the 20th century (Pratt 1994).

Distribution:

Moho bishopi was a forest bird endemic to the Hawaiian Islands, USA (Pratt et al. 1987). It was last recorded on Moloka'i in 1904 by Munro (1944), who received local reports of its survival until 1915, but could find no more birds despite numerous further searches up until 1949. There is very little historical information about its occurrence on Maui, and although a single bird believed to be this species was observed in 1981 on the north-east slope of Haleakala (Sabo 1982), there have been no further confirmed records despite intensive searching (Collar et al. 1994) and the species is presumed extinct (Reynolds and Snetsinger 2001).

References:

IUCN Redbook Data