ʻAkikiki

Oreomystis bairdi

Down to a single-digit wild population on Kauaʻi. Delivers messages from the last branch of a vanishing forest.

Population: Effectively/functionally extinct in the wild: from ~468 individuals (2012 IUCN/BirdLife estimate) and 454 in 2018, crashing to ~45 in 2021 and an estimated 5 in July 2023 (fewer than 10 by 2024) due to avian malaria; roughly 40-41 individuals survive in captive breeding facilities (Maui Bird Conservation Center / Keauhou Bird Conservation Center).
Habitat: High-elevation native ʻōhiʻa and koa-ʻōhiʻa rainforest, historically found from roughly 1,000-1,600 m elevation; requires intact, high-canopy native forest.
Fun fact: Asteroid 7613 was officially named \"7613 ʻAkikiki\" in 2015, but by 2023 mosquito-borne avian malaria had driven the wild population down to an estimated 5 individuals, making it one of the fastest species collapses ever documented in a bird.
Range: Endemic to the island of Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi, USA; formerly island-wide (including Kokeʻe), now restricted in the wild (where any remain) to the Alakaʻi Wilderness Preserve plateau — extent of occurrence ~120 km², area of occupancy as low as ~36 km² per 2007 surveys.
Diet: Arthropods (insects, spiders, insect larvae) gleaned nuthatch-style by hopping/creeping along trunks and branches of live and dead trees; often forages in pairs or joins mixed-species flocks.
Size: 0.13 m

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