Critically Endangered
Akekeʻe
Loxops caeruleirostris
The akekeʻe or Kauaʻi ʻākepa is a bird species in the family Fringillidae, where it is placed in the Hawaiian honeycreeper genus Loxops.
Appearance
Because of their similar size, shape, and unusual bill, the akekeʻe and the Hawaiʻi ʻākepa (Loxops coccineus) were for some time classified as a single species. This was eventually changed, because of differences in their color, nesting behavior, and calls. The akekeʻe is extremely threatened and is predicted to face imminent extinction if mosquito control efforts on Kauaʻi are not implemented.
Range and habitat
The akekeʻe is currently found only in the Waimea Canyon State Park, Alakaʻi Wilderness Preserve and Kōkeʻe State Park. It has been heading toward extinction because of its lack of tolerance to alteration of its habitat, that is based on mesic and wet forests, especially ʻōhiʻa lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha) trees. It is endemic to the island of Kauaʻi where it is found in small numbers in higher elevations.
Forest clearing in different parts of the island of Kauaʻi has caused the loss of habitat for this and many other bird species.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
The akekeʻe uses its bill like scissors to cut open buds in search of insects to eat. This bird builds nests primarily of twigs high up in trees, while the ʻākepa uses tree cavities as nest sites.
In crisis
The akekeʻe is threatened by the introduction of plants like the banana pōka (Passiflora tarminiana), a passionflower vine, that displace the native plants. Avian malaria (Plasmodium relictum) and fowlpox transmitted by accidentally introduced mosquitoes continues to affect the akekeʻe, limiting its populations to habitat above 1,100 meters ASL, where mosquitoes do not occur. The conservation status for this species was updated to critically endangered in 2008 due to a rapid decrease in population over the preceding decade.
The 2012 population was estimated under 5,000 individuals, in 2016 fewer than 1,000, and in 2021 fewer than 638. Of all the highly threatened Hawaiian birds, the akekeʻe has the largest rate of decline, with the population size declining by 21% every year.
Akekeʻe 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 Akekeʻe, Wikidata item Q1302723. 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.
