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  Profile

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  In flight

Songbirds

Kauaʻi ʻŌʻō

Moho braccatus

• mythic
• 120 km/h
• Extinct

Last heard singing in 1987, calling for a mate that never answered. Delivers messages from a silence that never lifted.

Population

0 — extinct; last individual (a single male) last heard/recorded in 1987 (last visually sighted 1985)

Habitat

Wet montane and subtropical forest, especially cavity-rich forested canyons and ʻōhiʻa/lapalapa stands in high-altitude wilderness

Fun fact

The Kauaʻi ʻŌʻō was the last surviving member of the family Mohoidae, and its extinction — confirmed after its final mate's song went unanswered and the species was last recorded in 1987 — ended the only entirely endemic Hawaiian bird family, one unrelated despite superficial resemblance to Australo-Pacific honeyeaters.

Range

Endemic to the Hawaiian island of Kauaʻi (last population confined to the Alakaʻi Wilderness Preserve/Alakaʻi Swamp)

Diet

Nectar (especially from Lobelia species and ʻōhiʻa lehua flowers) supplemented with small invertebrates and fruit gleaned from lapalapa and other native trees

Size

0.2 m