ʻŌʻū

Common card · No. 437385

The ʻōʻū (pronounced [ˈʔoː.ʔuː]) (Psittirostra psittacea) is an extinct species of Hawaiian honeycreeper that was endemic to the Hawaiian islands. It had a dark green back and olive green underparts; males had a yellow head while females had a green head. Its unusual beak seems to have been adapted to feeding on the fruits of Freycinetia arborea. It had a strong flight which it used to fly considerable distances in search of this vine, but it also ate other fruits, buds, flowers and insects. Although formerly widespread and present throughout the island group, numbers declined dramatically during the twentieth century. The bird had been listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being Critically Endangered since 1994, but in 2024 it was assessed as extinct. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had separately declared the bird extinct in a 2022 study review. The last recorded sighting was in 1989.

Read on Wikipedia · Image John Gerrard Keulemans, Public domain