Oʻahu ʻŌʻō

Krausschwanzmoho ( Moho apicalis )

The Krausschwanzmoho ( Moho apicalis ), also known as white-tipped tail or Oahu Oo Kraus called, is a species of bird in the extinct genus of Kraus tails.

Description

The males reached a length of 30.5 centimeters. The wing length was from 10.5 to 11.4 inches, the beak was 3.5 to 3.8 inches long and the length of the run was 3.4 to 3.8 centimeters. The females were smaller. The plumage was mostly sooty black. The tail feathers were brown and had, with the exception of the two middle, white lace. Other characteristics were the wispy white axillaries and the two narrow central tail feathers, which went into fine hair-like or fibrous tips. On the flanks and under tail-coverts, he was deeply colored yellow. Beak and running were black. About his life and behavior is not known.

Habitat

Its habitat was the mountain forests of Oahu.

Extinction

When John Gould the Krausschwanzmoho first described scientifically in 1860, he was already considered lost. 1837 garnered the German naturalist Ferdinand Deppe three specimens of this species in the hills behind the capital Honolulu. This was the final proof. After failed expeditions between 1880 and 1890 under the direction of the ornithologist Robert Leighton Cyril Perkins of Krausschwanzmoho was declared extinct. Today there are seven specimens in the museum collections in Berlin, New York City, London and Cambridge (Massachusetts ). The reasons for its extinction were probably avian diseases caused by introduced mosquitoes, land clearing, introduced rats, vegetation destruction by domestic cattle and goats as well as hunting.