Loxops wolstenholmei (Oahu 'Akepa)

[another specialist]

sebbe wrote

Not seen since early 1980's and presumed extinct.

The Hawaiian name 'AKEPA means "active".

Small finch-like species with long notched tails. Males are brick red with gray bills. Females are a dull gray-green color with no black in the lores. Older immature males are golden yellow irregularly tinged with orange. Young immature males are like females but with orange wash on breast. (4 inches) Calls: A thin, upslurred whistle, a high-pitched "teedle-ee-dee" and a louder two note "cheedlee". Song: A weak, rather listless trill which varies in speed and pitch, usually descending the scale.

Often seen in small flocks, this species used to keep to the leaf canopy where they fed on leaves and buds and occasionally flowers.

[another specialist]

Oahu 'Akepa
Loxops coccinea wolstenholmii
(=Loxops coccineus rufa)

The Oahu 'Akepa (Loxops coccineus wolstenholmii) was endemic to Oahu. It was common
in the early 19th century, but apparently rare by the end of the century. Specimens were
collected in 1825 and 1893 [125]. There have only been two confirmed sightings in the 20th
century: one in about 1900 and one in the late 1930s [139]. A probable sighting of a female
in the Koolau range near the headwaters of Kaukonahua Stream occurred in 1976 [138].
Surveys since then have found no birds [121].

[another specialist]

EXTINCT ?
Specimens collected in 1825 and 1893.
Last confirmed sighting 1903.
Possible sighting in 1976 by Shallenberger and Vaughn of a female Akepa in the central Koolau range of Oahu near the headwaters of Kaukonahua Stream.

OAHU AKEPA
Loxops coccinea rufa


The Oahu Akepa adult male had upper parts rufous orange with brownish wash; wings blackish brown, greenish orange on outer webs; below reddish orange, lighter on abdomen and lower tail coverts, length about 4.37 inches. Females had a nondescript dull gray-green plumage. The name Loxops means "twisted face" and refers to the Akepa's unequal mandibles.

No nesting information exists for the Oahu Akepa but most likely they were cavity nesters like the Akepas on the other islands. Food consisted of insects(especially caterpillars) and spiders, and occasionally nectar from ohia and other flowers visited within the forest canopy. This species specialized jaw musculature and asymmetrical bill allowed it to capture insects by twisting apart buds, small green seed pods, and leaf clusters.

The following is a passage from Birds of Hawaii written by George Munro in 1944;
In a paper by Perkins included with his journal and referring to 1893 he says: " Before I left Waialua ,Oahu, Palmer and Wolstenhome, Lord Rothchild's collectors, arrived there and shared the mountain house with me and afterwards from there camped far back in the mountains. I stayed with them for some time in their tent and was present with Wolstenholme when he shot the male Loxops rufa which had not been obtained since Lord Byron's visit in 1825. There was a second specimen in company with this, probably a female, but though we heard it we did not get in sight of it, nor of any other specimen. After I left... Palmer and his colleague again camped for some time where the Loxops occurred but failed to find another. Some 10 years later I came across a pair far back in the forest in the Wahiawa district, but I had no gun with me at the time."
Munro then writes ; It has not been reported since but may still survive in the more remote forest.

www.oahunaturetours.com/akepa.html

[another specialist]

www.birdinghawaii.co.uk/AnnotatedListExtinct2.htm

[Melanie]

Extinct birds : an attempt to unite in one volume a short account of those birds which have become extinct in historical times : that is, within the last six or seven hundred years : to which are added a few which still exist, but are on the verge of extinction (1907)

[another specialist]

www.foxhillantiques.com/hawaiienses.htm

[another specialist]

www.sil.si.edu/digitalcollections/nhrarebooks/rothschild/CF/description-search-results-all.cfm

[Deleted]

Also the three Akepas formerly merged as one species should better be treated as three different species, according to H. Douglass Pratt.

[another specialist]

Sept 14, 2008 10:17:03 GMT @noisi said:

Also the three Akepas formerly merged as one species should better be treated as three different species, according to H. Douglass Pratt.

Renamed thread

[Deleted]

O'ahu 'Akepa
(Loxops wolstenholmei)

male above, female below



scanned from H. Douglas Pratt: 'The Hawaiian Honeycreepers, Drepanidinae

[another specialist]

Image reference: 35886

Title: Loxops coccinea rufa, Myadastes obcurus oahuensis, Psittirostra psittacea

Description:
Hemignathus lucidus, Hemignathus ellisianus, Moho apicalis. Birds (listed from top to bottom) native to the Hawaiian Islands, many now extinct. Illustration by Julian Hume.

piclib.nhm.ac.uk/piclib/www/image.php?img=81646&frm=ser&search=hume,%20julian%20pender

[another specialist]

A small, brightly colored, restless honeycreeper of montane Hawaiian rain forests, the ‘Akepa is unusual in morphology, plumage, and behavior. Perhaps its most noteworthy character is a lateral asymmetry of the bill: the lower mandible is curved to one side, an extremely rare trait in birds. The ‘Akepa uses this unusual bill to pry open leaf and flower buds in search of arthropod prey in a manner similar to that of crossbills (Loxia spp.) opening conifer cones.

Another interesting feature of this species is that males exhibit delayed plumage maturation and do not acquire Definitive (adult) plumage until after their second breeding season. Such a long delay in plumage maturation is unusual for a 10- to 12-g bird.

The nonterritorial ‘Akepa has low annual reproductive output, high annual survivorship, and large group displays by males that are reminiscent of leks, even though the ‘Akepa is socially monogamous, with long-term pair bonds and biparental care. The only close relative of the ‘Akepa is the ‘Akeke‘e (Loxops caeruleirostris ) of Kaua‘i Island; the two species were considered one species between 1950 and 1991 because of their similar bill morphology, despite marked differences in appearance, voice, and breeding biology.

Although first collected by naturalists of the James Cook expedition in 1779 and formally described just 10 years later, the ‘Akepa, like most other Hawaiian birds, languished in relative obscurity for the next two centuries. Widely collected in the 1800s, it was only rarely noted in the twentieth century and was not studied by biologists until after being listed as an Endangered Species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Large-scale surveys in the late 1970s and early 1980s revealed larger populations of the Hawai‘i Island subspecies than were previously known, but confirmed the near extinction of the Maui Island subspecies. The O‘ahu Island subspecies has been considered extinct for more than 50 years. Despite a relatively robust population on Hawai‘i, the first nest was discovered only in 1974, and almost nothing was known of the life history of the ‘Akepa until the late 1980s. Core populations of the Hawai‘i ‘Akepa seem stable, but peripheral populations appear to be declining, and the Maui ‘Akepa is in critical danger of imminent extinction, if not already extinct.

Because of the extreme rarity of this species on Maui and its extinction on O‘ahu, all information presented here is for the Hawai‘i Island subspecies, unless otherwise noted. Most data are from studies by JKL and LAF at Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge (NWR).

bna.birds.cornell.edu/

[Peter]

Sept 14, 2008 20:32:47 GMT another specialist said:

Sept 14, 2008 10:17:03 GMT @noisi said:

Also the three Akepas formerly merged as one species should better be treated as three different species, according to H. Douglass Pratt.

Renamed thread

Still officially regarded as subspecies by most authoritative taxonomic checklists:

• BirdLife International (2013). The BirdLife checklist of the birds of the world, with conservation status and taxonomic sources. Version 6. Downloaded from www.birdlife.org/datazone/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/BirdLife_Checklist_Version_6.zip [.xls zipped 1 MB].
  
• Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, B.L. Sullivan, C. L. Wood, and D. Roberson. (2013). The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.8. Downloaded from www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/.
• Gill, F. & D. Donsker (Eds). (2014). IOC World Bird List (v 4.2). doi :  10.14344/IOC.ML.4.2.
• Hume J.P. & Walters M. (2012). Extinct birds. London: T & AD Poyser, 544 pp. ISBN 978-1-4081-5725-1.
• Lepage, D. & Warnier, J. (2014). The Peters' Check-list of the Birds of the World (1931-1987) Database. Accessed on 18/06/2014 from Avibase, the World Database: avibase.bsc-eoc.org/peterschecklist.jsp.

Although, Hume & Walters (2012) regard it as a separate species and mention:
"Once considered to be subspecies of the extant Hawaii 'Akepa Loxops coccineus, recent mitochrondrial DNA studies have shown that the Oahu and Maui 'Akepas are distinct and warrant full specific status (Pratt 2010)."

References:

• Hume J.P. & Walters M. (2012). Extinct birds. London: T & AD Poyser, 544 pp. ISBN 978-1-4081-5725-1.
• Pratt, H. D. (2010). Family Drepanididae (Hawaiian honeycreepers). Pp. 618-659 in del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. & Christie, D. A. (eds). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 15. Weavers to New World warblers. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions.

[Sebbe]

Revise species limits in three extinct complexes of Hawaiian honeycreepers

checklist.aou.org/nacc/proposals/PDF/2015-B.pdf

[surroundx]

Jouanin, Christian. (1962). Inventaire des oiseaux éteints ou en voie d’extinction conservés au Muséum de Paris. Terre et Vie 109: 275-301.

[Sebbe]

Akepa (Loxops coccineus) is being split: list L. ochraceus as Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct) and L. wolstenholmei as Extinct?

The newly defined species L. wolstenholmei was last convincingly reported in 1930 on the Hawaiian island of Oahu (Donaghho 1963) and is generally considered as extinct (Pratt 2005). Therefore, we propose to list the species as Extinct.

www.birdlife.org/globally-threatened-bird-forums/2016/10/akepa-loxops-coccineus-is-being-split-list-l-ochraceus-as-critically-endangered-possibly-extinct-and-l-wolstenholmei-as-extinct/

[Peter]

Taxonomy

Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family
Animalia Chordata Aves Passeriformes Fringillidae

Scientific Name: Loxops wolstenholmei
Species Authority: Rothschild, 1893
Common Name(s):
English – Oahu Akepa
Taxonomic Source(s): del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A., Fishpool, L.D.C., Boesman, P. and Kirwan, G.M. 2016. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 2: Passerines. Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.
Identification information:

Assessment Information

Red List Category & Criteria: Extinct ver 3.1
Year Published: 2016
Date Assessed: 2016-10-01
Assessor(s): BirdLife International
Reviewer(s): Butchart, S. & Symes, A.
Contributor(s): Baker, H.C., Baker, P.E., Camp, R., Freed, L., Fretz, S., Gorresen, M., Lepson, J., Scott, J., VanderWerf, E., Woodworth, B. & Hart, P.
Facilitator/Compiler(s): Benstead, P., Calvert, R., Capper, D., Harding, M., Isherwood, I., Khwaja, N., Mahood, S., Stattersfield, A., Stuart, T., Taylor, J., Derhé, M., Westrip, J.
Justification:
This species was last seen in the wild in 1930, and is considered Extinct.

Geographic Range

Range Description: Loxops wolstenholmi was endemic to the Hawaiian Islands, U.S.A. on O'ahu. The species is extinct (Lepson and Freed 1997), having been last recorded in 1930.
Countries occurrence:
Regionally extinct:
United States (Hawaiian Is.)
Additional data:
♦ Continuing decline in area of occupancy (AOO): Unknown
♦ Extreme fluctuations in area of occupancy (AOO): No ♦ Estimated extent of occurrence (EOO) - km2: 380
♦ Continuing decline in extent of occurrence (EOO): Unknown ♦ Extreme fluctuations in extent of occurrence (EOO): No
♦ Continuing decline in number of locations: Unknown
♦ Extreme fluctuations in the number of locations: No
Range Map: Click here to open the map viewer and explore range.

Population

Population: No extant population remains.

Trend Justification: The species is likely to have been driven to extinction by habitat destruction and disease.
Additional data:
♦ Continuing decline of mature individuals: Unknown
♦ Extreme fluctuations: No ♦ Population severely fragmented: Unknown
♦ Continuing decline in subpopulations: Unknown
♦ Extreme fluctuations in subpopulations: No ♦ All individuals in one subpopulation: No

Habitat and Ecology

Habitat and Ecology:
Systems: Terrestrial
Continuing decline in area, extent and/or quality of habitat: Unknown
Generation Length (years): 5.8
Movement patterns: Not a Migrant

Threats

Major Threat(s): The species is thought to have been driven to extinction by habitat destruction and disease.

Bibliography

IUCN. 2016. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2016-3. Available at: www.iucnredlist.org. (Accessed: 07 December 2016).
Lepson, J. K.; Freed, L. A. 1997. 'Akepa (Loxops coccineus). In: Poole, A.; Gill, F. (ed.), The birds of North America, No. 294, pp. 1-24. The Academy of Natural Sciences and The American Ornithologists' Union, Philadelphia and Washington, DC.

Citation: BirdLife International. 2016. Loxops wolstenholmei. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T103824105A104236586. Downloaded on 11 December 2016.

www.iucnredlist.org/details/full/103824105/0