The stout-legged finch (''Ciridops tenax'') 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

finch The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches generally have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where the ...

, in the '

Hawaiian honeycreeper Hawaiian honeycreepers are a group of small birds endemic to Hawaii. They are members of the finch family Fringillidae, closely related to the rosefinches (''Carpodacus''), but many species have evolved features unlike those present in any othe ...

' group.

Subfossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

remains have been found only on the island of

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 ...

and indicate that it survived up until the late

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), as well as the current and most recent of the twelve periods of the ...

period. It probably died out when the first humans arrived in the Hawaiian Islands. The stout-legged finch would have been very vulnerable to the pests and agriculture that the humans brought with them. It was a congener of the 'ula-'ai-hawane, and therefore probably had similar colors of red, white and black.

References

*H. Douglas Pratt, Jack Jeffrey: ''The Hawaiian Honeycreepers '' Oxford University Press, 2005 *Scott B Wilson & Arthur Humble Evans: Aves Hawaiienses: The Birds of the Sandwich Islands. 1890–99. R. H. Porter, London (Reprint: Ayer Publishing, 1974 ) Late Quaternary prehistoric birds Holocene extinctions Ciridops Extinct birds of Hawaii Endemic fauna of Hawaii Hawaiian honeycreepers Biota of Kauai Taxa named by Storrs L. Olson Taxa named by Helen F. James Fossil taxa described in 1991 {{paleo-bird-stub

References

Further reading