Birdfinding.info ⇒ The Oahu Akialoa is known mainly from three specimens collected in the Nu’uanu Valley from January 11 to 15, 1837. The last universally accepted record was of a pair at Nu’uanu in October 1892. There was a spate of reported observations in the late 1930s, the last on February 19, 1939 at Makakilo, but modern reviewers have questioned their reliability.
Oahu Akialoa †
Akialoa ellisiana
Extinct. Formerly endemic to Oahu.
Identification
A very large honeycreeper with an extraordinarily long, scimitar-shaped bill gray, olive upperparts, yellow breast, white belly, and yellow highlights in the wings and tail. Although long, its bill was somewhat shorter than that of the Kauai Akialoa.
Notes
Monotypic species. Formerly considered conspecific with Kauai, Maui Nui, and Lesser Akialoas, known collectively as the Akialoa (Hemignathus ellisianus).
References
BirdLife International. 2017. Akialoa ellisiana (amended version of 2017 assessment). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017: e.T103823212A119549725. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-3.RLTS.T103823212A119549725.en. (Accessed May 18, 2020.)
Hume, J.P. 2017. Extinct Birds (Second Edition). Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, London.
Pratt, H.D. 2005. The Hawaiian Honeycreepers: Drepanidinae. Oxford University Press.
Pyle, R.L., and P. Pyle. 2017. The Birds of the Hawaiian Islands: Occurrence, History, Distribution, and Status. Version 2 (January 1, 2017). http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/birds/rlp-monograph/. B.P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii.