Critically Endangered
ʻAkohekohe
Palmeria dolei
ʻAkohekohe is a perching bird in the family Fringillidae (order Passeriformes) — Palmeria dolei, recorded as Critically Endangered.
Appearance
The adults are a glossy black with whitish feathers and stripes going down its side. The underparts are whitish black while the top has orange feathers sticking from wings. The feathers behind the eyes are a reddish color, and have a stream of cream colored feathers coming from the eyes.
The ʻākohekohe (pronounced "ah ko-hay ko-hay") is the largest honeycreeper on Maui, at 6.5 to 7 inches (17 to 18 cm) in length.
Published measurements include mass about 28.8.
Range and habitat
Its natural habitat is wet forests dominated by koa (Acacia koa) and ʻōhiʻa lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha) on the windward side of Haleakalā at elevations of 4,200 to 7,100 feet (1,300 to 2,200 m). During a search for the species in the east Maui forests, there were a record of 415 observations over an area of 11,000 acres (45 km2) and at elevations from 4,200 to 7,100 feet (1,300 to 2,200 m) above sea level. It is endemic to the island of Maui in Hawaiʻi.
The ʻākohekohe currently survives only on Maui, but also lived on the eastern side of the island of Molokaʻi until 1907. This bird was common on both islands at the start of the 20th century.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
When ʻōhiʻa lehua blossoms are limited, it will eat insects, fruit, and nectar from other plants. The ʻākohekohe will forage in the understory if necessary, where food plants include ʻākala (Rubus hawaiensis).
The ʻākohekohe is susceptible to mosquito‐transmitted avian malaria (Plasmodium relictum) and only breeds in high‐elevation wet forests (> 1,715 m or 5,630 ft).
In crisis
It was thought to be extinct after that—even so, in 1945 a small population was discovered in the National Area Reserve on Haleakalā in Maui. Over the course of the millennia, the population has decreased. The Polynesian rat (Rattus exulans) was also introduced to the islands at this time, that was a significant component of habitat loss and species decline.
When Europeans arrived, the land and habitat loss and extinctions accelerated. In the mid-1800s, mosquitoes were introduced to the Hawaiian Islands, and later, mosquito-transmitted diseases such as avian malaria and avian pox.
ʻAkohekohe is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on ʻAkohekohe, Wikidata item Q591208. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
