The kāmao or large Kauai thrush (''Myadestes myadestinus'') is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

species of small, dark

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that was

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Kauai Kauai (), anglicized as Kauai ( or ), is one of the main Hawaiian Islands. It has an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), making it the fourth-largest of the islands and the 21st-largest island in the United States. Kauai lies 73 m ...

in the

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands () are an archipelago of eight major volcanic islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the Pacific Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the Hawaii (island), island of Hawaii in the south to nort ...

Characteristics

The adult bird grew up to in length. The male and female of the species looked similar. It was dark brown above and gray below, with black legs. It was closely related to the other species of Hawaiian thrushes, the Puaiohi (''M. palmeri''), the Ōmao (''M. obscurus'') and the likely-extinct olomao (''M. lanaiensis''). Its song was a complex melody composed of flute-like notes, liquid warbles, buzzy trills, and gurgling whistles. The call was a raspy "braak," with an alternate high pitched note similar to a police whistle. The bird occurred in the understory of densely vegetated gulches, where it often perched motionlessly in a hunched posture. Like other native Hawaiian thrushes, it often quivered its wings and fed primarily on fruit and insects. There was no segregation on the thrushes that existed either on Molokai or Lanai, which were given the name Olomao. In addition, there was no confirmation of any thrush sighting on Maui. On Kauai, there were more than one thrush species that were documented and accounted for. With a fighter-jet-like flying maneuver, the thrush used to fly vertically while singing melodies and then flying down into the lower lush canopy. While not confirmed, but it was never seen flying below 3,500 feet in Kauai. Even though the bird was a frequent resident, the last documented sighting was in 1989, but it was not documented in a 2000 bird survey.

Extinction

In the late 1800s, it was considered the most common bird on Kauai, occurring throughout all areas of the island, but land clearing and

avian malaria Avian malaria is a parasitic disease of birds, caused by parasite species belonging to the genera ''Plasmodium'' and '' Hemoproteus'' (phylum Apicomplexa, class Haemosporidia, family Plasmoiidae). The disease is transmitted by a dipteran vector in ...

brought on by introduced

mosquito Mosquitoes, the Culicidae, are a Family (biology), family of small Diptera, flies consisting of 3,600 species. The word ''mosquito'' (formed by ''Musca (fly), mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish and Portuguese for ''little fly''. Mos ...

es decimated the birds. Shortly after its discovery in 1826, the bird became extinct and no specimens of it was known. Introduced animals such as feral pigs (which create pools for their wallows, in which mosquitoes can breed) and rats (which feed on eggs and unfledged birds) also contributed to the bird's demise. Competition from introduced bird species may also have led to further declines. The kāmao is classified as extinct. The last probable sighting occurred in 1989 in the

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, its last stronghold. On September 29, 2021, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared the large Kauai thrush extinct. The species was delisted from the

Endangered Species Act The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA; 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.) is the primary law in the United States for protecting and conserving imperiled species. Designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of e ...

on October 16, 2023.

References

External links

BirdLife Species Factsheet3D view
of specimens RMNH 110.024 and RMNH 110.025 at

Naturalis Naturalis Biodiversity Center () is a national museum of natural history and a research center on biodiversity in Leiden, Netherlands. It was named the European Museum of the Year 2021. Although its current name and organization are relatively ...

, Leiden (requires

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browser plugin). * *http://www.hdouglaspratt.com/journal_articles/1982_pratt_myadestes.pdf *https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/wildlife/files/2019/03/SWAP-2015-Kamao-Final.pdf Myadestes Extinct birds of Hawaii Bird extinctions since 1500 Biota of Kauai Birds described in 1887 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Hawaii-stub