Oʻahu Nukupuʻu

Oʻahu Nukupuʻu
Nukupu'u Hemignathus lucides
Conservation status
Extinct (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Drepanididae
Genus:	Hemignathus
Species:	H. lucidus lucidus
Binomial name
Hemignathus lucidus lucides Lichtenstein, 1839

The Oʻahu Nukupuʻu was a species of Nukupuʻu that was similar to its cousins from the Islands of Kauai and Maui. The males were mostly yellow with that color spread across the belly and on the head. As you got to the wings, they turn from yellow to olive green. It lores were a shade of black and the legs were also black. The females and the young had similar coloration except that there was less yellow and the yellow they had was more dull then the males. They had a long decurved bill that would reach about one and a half inch in length. The upper bill was twice as long as the lower one, which was designed to pluck out the insects from the tube that was made into the bark that was made by the lower bill.

It mostly fed on insects in which it found underneath the barks of certain trees. These trees included the Koa and Oʻhia which attracted a large amount of insects because of their nectar filled flowers. It fed on Koa in high elevation forests and fed on Oʻhia in low elevations. In rare cases it fed on the nectar of the Oʻhia flowers.

The Oʻahu Nukupuʻu was last collected in 1837 when Mr. Deppe shot several specimens in the Nuuanu Valley where it was seen feeding on the nectar of several flowers in a plantation. Afterward though, it was never collected but from Perkins, we see that it was still existent in the 1860s. When searches for the species were issued in the 1880s, no specimens ever turned up.

Today we no longer can see the Oʻahu Nukupuʻu in the wild. Instead we can only see it as a few specimens that were collected over the course of the years. It was believed to have vanished as the spread of disease occurred, killing off Nukupuʻu populations across the island. Mongooses and rats were released onto the island and were suspected to be predators that stole chicks from nests, causing the quota increase from chicks to drop.

References

• BirdLife International 2004. Hemignathus lucidus lucidus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 10 July 2007.