Moho bishopi (Molokai 'O'o)

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Bishop's 'O 'o Moho bishopi (Rothschild, 1893)

Status: It was last collected in 1892. Last seen in 1904.
Museum Specimens:

Other common names:

Taxonomy: occasionally treated as a subspecies of the Hawai'i'O'o M. nobilis (Bryan and Greenway 1944, who considered all 'o'os subspecies of a single species) but specimen evidence confirms that Bishop 'O'o is distinct. In 2008 the 'o'os were moved from the Australasian family Melaphigidae to their own family, Mohoidae, of North American origin (Fleischer et al. 2008).

Distribution
It was formerly known from Moloka'i and Maui, Hawaiian Islands, USA.

Status
On 16 December 1892 the type specimen (AMNH693923) was secured by Henry Palmer above Kalua'aha, Moloka'i and named by Rothschild (1893d, 1900) in honor of Charles R. Bishop, who founded the Bernice Puaohi Bishop Museum in the 1890s.

It was reported to be common and widespread by native Hawaiians, but naturalists visiting Moloka'i in the 1890s found them generally uncommon, declining, and restricted to thick forests at higher elevations (Perkins, 1895, 1903; Rothschild, 1900; Munro, 1944; Banko, 1981a; E 57:77). The last substantiated report was of about six individuals observed by Munro (1944; E 7:62) in upper Waikolu Valley in 1904 (one was collected (BPBM 6081). Bryan (1908) was unable to find any during extensive searches of all former haunts of the species during 15 Apr-15 Jun 1907. Munro (1944) received local reports of its survival until 1915, but could find no more birds despite numerous further searches up until 1949.

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DESCRIPTION and TAXONOMY
Bishop’s `ô`ô, now considered a “species of concern,” was a large, 12-
inch (31 centimeters), vociferous, long-tailed black forest bird with a yellow ear
patch, under tail coverts, and maxillary tufts. Bishop’s `ô`ô was known with
certainty only from Moloka`i, and was a member of the honeyeater family
(Melaphagidae), originating in Australia and the South Pacific and not related to
the Hawaiian honeycreepers. The genus Moho was endemic to the Hawaiian
Islands, but all four species in this genus are now extinct. The Bishop's `ô`ô was
last seen in 1904 (Munro 1944). Detailed descriptions of this species and its calls
are provided by Perkins (1903) and Munro (1944).
LIFE HISTORY
Information on the life history of the Bishop’s `ô`ô is very fragmentary
and known only from the writings of early naturalists (Perkins 1903, Munro
123
1944). Apparently this species was primarily nectarivorous, preferring lobelia
flowers, but it also fed on insects. Nothing is known of its nesting biology.
HABITAT DESCRIPTION
Munro (1944) reported Bishop’s `ô`ô from forested areas with `ôhi`a and
lobeliads in the upper elevations of Moloka`i. Supposed detections of `ô`ô on
Maui were from montane rainforest of northeastern East Maui (Sabo 1982).
HISTORICAL AND CURRENT RANGE AND STATUS
Historically, this species was recorded only from Moloka`i (Figure 15).
Subfossil remains of Moho from Maui may be this species (James and Olson
1991). Black birds reported to be `ô`ô’, and perhaps most likely this species,
have been reported historically from `ôhi`a forests on Maui according to Banko
(1980-1984) and most recently Sabo (1982), but these reports were never
confirmed. The 1980 Hawaiian Forest Bird Survey failed to detect this species on
Moloka`i or Maui (Scott et al. 1986), nor have subsequent searches and other
field work turned up any (Reynolds and Snetsinger 2001). It seems clear that this
species should be considered extinct.
REASONS FOR DECLINE AND CURRENT THREATS
Reasons for the early decline and loss of Bishop’s `ô`ô are unknown, but
presumably are the same as for other endangered forest birds on Moloka`i and
Maui. Additionally, this species was hunted by Hawaiians for its yellow plumes,
and it is possible that unregulated feather collecting in the 1800's, when guns
became available, contributed to the bird's demise.
CONSERVATION EFFORTS
No specific efforts to recover this species have been initiated because no
individuals are known to exist and the species is almost certainly extinct.
RECOVERY STRATEGY
It is very unlikely that this species survives on either Moloka`i or Maui.
However, see the Rare Bird Discovery Protocol in Section III. D.

ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plans/2003/031016.pdf

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www.50birds.com/gextinct3.htm

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animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/pictures/Meliphagidae.html

[another specialist]

gap in nature

[sebastian]

"This species has been collected only from Molokai where birds were last seen in 1904 (Munro 1944), and where more recent cearches have failed to find them (Richardson 1949; Pekelo 1963a, 1963b, 1967; Pratt 1974; Scott et al. 1977; HFBS data).

Munro (1944 : 86) described Bishop`s Oo as "active birds in the low trees on the gulch wall. They were inquisitive and though they aproached me closely, they were timid and continually on the alert; never still an instant, chatering continuously. They stayed for some time before taking fright and leaving." Perkins (1903 : 442) stated that they were "easily called by imitating [the] cry, though [they] will not infrecuently come and inspect the intruder uncalled ... [they] rarely expose [themselves] to more than a momentary view, diving beneath the foliage of the bushes at the slightest alarm." Perkins noted that the call was sometimes audible at a distance os 1000 m.

Based on these descriptions, we used an esffective detection distance of 75 m in determining the probability of our finding Boshop`s Oo or a similar species on Molokai and Maui. We estimated the probability of detecting an extant population of 10, 50, and 100 birds on Maui at 0.49, 0.97, and 0.99, respectively. Probabilites are lower for Molokai.

Oo have been reported from Maui since 1828
(Banko 1980 - 1984), the most notable sightings being by Henshaw (1902) and Sabo (1982). In these two sightings the observers were convinced that the bird was an adult oo, possibly Bishop`s Oo from the field marks; these records have been accepted by Pyle and Ralph (1982) and the A.O.U. (1983). Until a specimen or photograph is obtained, however, the specific identity of the "Maui Oo" remains debatable. The most recent sightings were from ohia rainforests on the north-east slopes of Heleakala, in the Hanawi watershed at 1600 - 2000 m elevation. There was one incidental sighting of an unidentified black bird with an oo silhouette from that area during the 1980 HFBS and another by D. Boynton (pers. comm.) 1983. Fossils of Moho sp. occur on Maui (S. L. Olson, pers. comm.).

Bishop`s Oo are primarily nectarivorous and were said to specially prefer lobeliad nectar (Perkins 1903). Lobeliads are particularly sensitive to habitat degradation by pigs, indicating that pigs posed an indirect threat to the species."

Book: "Forest Bird Communities of the Hawaiian Islands: Their Dynamics, Ecology, and Conservation" - J. Michael Scott - 1986 - Publication of The Cooper Ornithological Society.

[another specialist]

Maui Oo
(Moho sp.)

syn. -

distribution:

Hawai'i Islands: Maui

native name: -

size: ?

extinction date: nach 1901 (?)

In the year 1901 H. W. Henshaw reported a sighting of an Oo, which he had seen on the island of Maui.

Another, but very doubtful sighting of such a bird on Maui in the year 1981 was referred to an unknown man, whose name was said to be Mountainspring or Sabo. Due to this 'sighting' the specialist puplications spoke of the rediscovery of the Molokai Oo on Moloka'i's neighbouring island Maui.

But there was no other sighting since.

At least subfossil bone remains, found on Maui, confirm the former existence of a member of that genus on the island, and this was probably a species different from the Molokai Oo.

References:

- Storrs L. Olson, Helen F. James: 'Descriptions of thirty-two new species of birds from the Hawaiian Islands: Part II. Passeriformes'
- Dieter Luther: 'Die ausgestorbenen Vögel der Welt'

www.extinct.minks-lang.de/7voegel/a.birdsarten.a-m/moho.sp.maui1.htm

[another specialist]

Oct 27, 2006 19:38:23 GMT sebastian said:

"This species has been collected only from Molokai where birds were last seen in 1904 (Munro 1944), and where more recent cearches have failed to find them (Richardson 1949; Pekelo 1963a, 1963b, 1967; Pratt 1974; Scott et al. 1977; HFBS data).

Munro (1944 : 86) described Bishop`s Oo as "active birds in the low trees on the gulch wall. They were inquisitive and though they aproached me closely, they were timid and continually on the alert; never still an instant, chatering continuously. They stayed for some time before taking fright and leaving." Perkins (1903 : 442) stated that they were "easily called by imitating [the] cry, though [they] will not infrecuently come and inspect the intruder uncalled ... [they] rarely expose [themselves] to more than a momentary view, diving beneath the foliage of the bushes at the slightest alarm." Perkins noted that the call was sometimes audible at a distance os 1000 m.

Based on these descriptions, we used an esffective detection distance of 75 m in determining the probability of our finding Boshop`s Oo or a similar species on Molokai and Maui. We estimated the probability of detecting an extant population of 10, 50, and 100 birds on Maui at 0.49, 0.97, and 0.99, respectively. Probabilites are lower for Molokai.

Oo have been reported from Maui since 1828
(Banko 1980 - 1984), the most notable sightings being by Henshaw (1902) and Sabo (1982). In these two sightings the observers were convinced that the bird was an adult oo, possibly Bishop`s Oo from the field marks; these records have been accepted by Pyle and Ralph (1982) and the A.O.U. (1983). Until a specimen or photograph is obtained, however, the specific identity of the "Maui Oo" remains debatable. The most recent sightings were from ohia rainforests on the north-east slopes of Heleakala, in the Hanawi watershed at 1600 - 2000 m elevation. There was one incidental sighting of an unidentified black bird with an oo silhouette from that area during the 1980 HFBS and another by D. Boynton (pers. comm.) 1983. Fossils of Moho sp. occur on Maui (S. L. Olson, pers. comm.).

Bishop`s Oo are primarily nectarivorous and were said to specially prefer lobeliad nectar (Perkins 1903). Lobeliads are particularly sensitive to habitat degradation by pigs, indicating that pigs posed an indirect threat to the species."

Book: "Forest Bird Communities of the Hawaiian Islands: Their Dynamics, Ecology, and Conservation" - J. Michael Scott - 1986 - Publication of The Cooper Ornithological Society.

As the above says

Oo have been reported from Maui since 1828
(Banko 1980 - 1984), the most notable sightings being by Henshaw (1902) and Sabo (1982). In these two sightings the observers were convinced that the bird was an adult oo, possibly Bishop`s Oo from the field marks; these records have been accepted by Pyle and Ralph (1982) and the A.O.U. (1983). Until a specimen or photograph is obtained, however, the specific identity of the "Maui Oo" remains debatable. The most recent sightings were from ohia rainforests on the north-east slopes of Heleakala, in the Hanawi watershed at 1600 - 2000 m elevation. There was one incidental sighting of an unidentified black bird with an oo silhouette from that area during the 1980 HFBS and another by D. Boynton (pers. comm.) 1983. Fossils of Moho sp. occur on Maui (S. L. Olson, pers. comm.).

[another specialist]

Concept Reference: NatureServe. Unpublished. Concept reference for taxa which have not yet been described; to be used as a placeholder until a citation is available which describes the circumscription of the taxon.
Concept Reference Code: UNDABI01EHUS
Name Used in Concept Reference: Moho sp. 1
Taxonomic Comments: No specimens, photographs, or records other than written descriptions exist for this taxon. Described in "convincing detail" by Sabo (1982) and treated as a probable population or subspecies of Bishop's 'O'o (MOHO BISHOPI) by AOU (1998) and Sykes et al. (2000).

NatureServe Status
Global Status: GH
Global Status Last Reviewed: 28Mar2001
Global Status Last Changed: 28Mar2001
Rounded Global Status: GH - Possibly Extinct
Reasons:
Reported from Maui, Hawaiian Islands; a few probable but unconfirmed sightings from 1973-1986. Declined perhaps to extinction as a result of deforestation, introduced predators and competitors, and introduced avian diseases.
Nation: United States
National Status: NH

www.natureserve.org/explorer/servlet/NatureServe?searchName=%20Moho+sp.+1

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

[another specialist]

Editor's Note: This account covers the 4 species of ‘Ö‘ö in the Hawaiian Islands, plus the closely-related Kioea. Future revisions of this account may provide separate coverage for each species.

This large, interesting, and diverse family of nectar-feeding honeyeaters has its center of abundance in the Australo-Papuan region and was represented in the Hawaiian Islands by 5 species: Kaua‘i ‘Ö‘ö (‘Ö‘ö ‘ä‘ä) on the island of Kaua‘i, O‘ahu ‘Ö‘ö on O‘ahu, Bishop’s ‘Ö‘ö on Moloka‘i, and Hawai‘i ‘Ö‘ö and Kioea on Hawai‘i. The Hawai‘i ‘Ö‘ö was the first Hawaiian honey-eater discovered by westerners, described from a specimen obtained in 1779 during Captain James Cook’s third voyage; the other 4 species were not known to the scientific community until the mid- to late 1800s. The O‘ahu and Hawai‘i ‘ö‘ö and the Kioea are now definitely extinct, and the Kaua‘i and Bishop’s ‘ö‘ö are probably extinct.

These medium-sized to large passerines have relatively slender, sharp, slightly down-curved, dark bills and specialized tubular tongues that function as straws for sucking nectar from many structurally different species of flowers. All 4 ‘ö‘ö have black plumage with discrete bright-yellow patches and feather-tufts, and 3 have distinctive color patterns on their graduated tail-feathers; the Kioea has a streaked head, neck, upper back, and underparts, a black mask through the eye, and uniformly colored brown wings, lower back, and long graduated tail. The bright-yellow ‘ö‘ö feathers were prized by early Hawaiians and used in making long flowing cloaks, opulent feather capes, ornate headdresses, and royal standards (kahili) of the kings and high chiefs, as well as numerous leis and other items. Yellow ‘ö‘ö feathers were also gathered into small, loosely tied bunches as tax payments by common people to the ruling class.

All 5 of these honeyeaters were inhabitants of undisturbed native forests. They were highly vocal, having loud, distinct, pleasant, melodious repertoires. Only the voice of the Kaua‘i ‘Ö‘ö was ever recorded, archived, and published, and it is probably the only Hawaiian honeyeater that has been heard by anyone now living. Except for the Kaua‘i ‘Ö‘ö, most of our knowledge of these species is anecdotal; 3 of the 4 ‘ö‘ö species disappeared shortly after they were described. Much of the specimen material has little or no data, and only 10 O‘ahu ‘Ö‘ö and 4 Kioea study skins are known to exist in collections. Exam-ination of a series of specimens and attached labels has revealed some unpublished information, herein presented for the first time.

The disappearance of Hawaiian honeyeaters was not well documented, but possible causes have been widely discussed. With the exception of hurricanes and other severe storms, negative factors contributing directly or indirectly to their extinction were related to the activities of native Hawaiians and Caucasians since their first contact with the islands. Negative factors have included destruction and modification of native forests; introduction of nonnative mammals to the islands (rats, Indian mongoose, pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, domestic cats) and their impacts on native forest habitats, as well as directly on the birds themselves; introduction of nonnative birds and associated diseases; introduction of mosquitoes; and exploitation of the ‘ö‘ö for feathers.

We dedicate this account to our longtime friend and colleague John L. Sincock, who died in 1991 at his home in Pennsylvania. John, a Research Wildlife Biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, studied birds in Hawai‘i (including the Leeward Islands) from 1967 until his retirement in 1984. He pioneered research on Hawaiian forest birds, particularly on Kaua‘i, and spent thousands of hours in the Alaka‘i Swamp. He found the first Kaua‘i ‘Ö‘ö nest in 1971 and, subsequently, 2 others. Assisted by his wife, Renate, he secured the first photographs of the Kaua‘i ‘Ö‘ö on 31 May 1971. He subsequently took between 300 and 400 color and black-and-white photos and several hundred feet of color super-8 motion picture film of Kaua‘i ‘Ö‘ö in the Alaka‘i Swamp in the 1970s and made sound recordings in the early 1980s. John introduced all 4 of us to the Alaka‘i Swamp, enabling us to personally observe and hear what is believed to have been the last Kaua‘i ‘Ö‘ö. We rely on much of his unpublished data in this paper.

In this account, if a species is not listed under a given topic, no information is known to exist on that subject for that species. Nouns in the Hawaiian language are both singular and plural. For museum abbreviations, see Appendix 1 .


bna.birds.cornell.edu

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Hawaii’s honeyeater birds tricked taxonomists DNA from old museum specimens reveals evolutionary look-alikes By Susan Milius Web edition : Friday, December 12th, 2008 Five species of Hawaiian birds have made fools of taxonomists for more than 200 years, thanks to a fine bit of evolutionary illusion-making.O‘o and kioea birds, now extinct, specialized in feeding on flower nectar using long, curved bills and split tongues tipped with brushes or fringe. Since Captain Cook’s expedition introduced the birds to western science, they have been classified in the honeyeater family with similar-looking nectar sippers living in New Guinea and Australia.DNA from museum specimens of the Hawaiian species shows that the birds weren’t a kind of honeyeater at all, according to Robert Fleischer of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Instead the Hawaiians’ resemblance to the western Pacific birds offers a new and dramatic example of how evolution within different lineages can converge on similar forms for similar jobs, he and his colleagues report online December 11 in Current Biology.O‘os and the kioea weren’t even closely related to the honeyeaters of the western Pacific, Fleischer says. The closest relatives of Hawaii’s so-called honeyeaters were waxwings, silky flycatchers and the palmchat. These kin live mostly in the Americas and use tongues of unexciting shapes to eat bugs and berries. In the United States, the cedar waxwing and the Southwest’s phainopepla may be the best-known examples.“It’s like we had this animal we always thought was a dog, and it’s turned out to be a mongoose,” Fleischer says.Genetic evidence suggests that some ancestral relative of the waxwing group arrived in Hawaii between about five and 14 million years ago, Fleischer says. Living the island life, the ancestral birds shifted to nectar feeding and evolved body forms like the honeyeaters. All the birds with similar shapes and habits looked like kin to ornithologists.Their degree of convergence is “remarkable,” in the words of Keith Barker of the University of Minnesota’s Bell Museum in Minneapolis. He’s working with DNA that uncovered another long-lost relative of the waxwings, living among southeast Asian birds. “This was shocking to us, but not nearly as startling as Fleischer's finding,” he says.Discovering the mainland connection for Hawaii’s o‘os and kioea adds yet another animal group to the list of immigrants from the Americas that colonized Hawaii, Barker says. Yet, excepting the mints and silverswords, a lot of Hawaii’s plants seem to have come from the opposite direction, from the South Pacific.While living in Hawaii, the new nectar feeders diversified into four o‘o species, each on a different island, with the kioea residing on the Big Island.Lemon- colored patches in o‘o plumage supplied brilliant yellow feathers for island royalty’s ceremonial capes and headdresses.The kioea disappeared first, during the 1850s. O‘os hung on longer. The last of the species, Kauai’s, hasn’t been seen since 1985. “I just missed it,” says Fleischer, who moved to Hawaii that year.Kioeas and o‘os deserve a family of their own, Fleischer and his colleagues contend. Thus, even before it was named, the newly christened Mohoidae became the only bird family that disappeared without a survivor in the last hundred years.

www.sciencen ews.org/view/ generic/id/ 39312/title/ Hawaii%E2% 80%99s_honeyeate r_birds_tricked_ taxonomists

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Hawaii's Bird Family Tree Rearranged

ScienceDaily (Dec. 16, 2008) — A group of five endemic and recently extinct Hawaiian songbird species were historically classified as "honeyeaters" due to striking similarities to birds of the same name in Australia and neighboring islands in the South Pacific. Scientists at the Smithsonian Institution, however, have recently discovered that the Hawaiian birds, commonly known as the oo's and the kioea, share no close relationship with the other honeyeaters and in fact represent a new and distinct family of birds—unfortunately, all of the species in the new family are extinct, with the last species of the group disappearing about 20 years ago.

The findings of the study, conducted by Robert Fleischer, a molecular geneticist at Smithsonian's National Zoo and National Museum of Natural History and Storrs Olson and Helen James, both curators of birds at the National Museum of Natural History, were published in the international science journal Current Biology Dec. 11.

"The similarities between these two groups of nectar-feeding birds in bill and tongue structure, plumage and behavior result not from relatedness, but from the process of convergent evolution—the evolution of similar traits in distantly related taxa because of common selective pressures," said Fleischer, lead author of the study.

These five Hawaiian species of birds in the genera Moho and Chaetoptila, looked and behaved like Australasian honeyeaters of the family Meliphagidae, and no taxonomist since their discovery on Captain James Cook's third voyage to Hawaii in 1779 has ever classified them as anything else. However, there has been no rigorous assessment of their relationships using molecular data—until now.

Smithsonian scientists obtained DNA sequences from museum specimens of Moho and Chaetoptila that had been collected in Hawaii 115-158 years ago. Analyses show that these two Hawaiian genera descended from a common ancestor. Surprisingly, however, the analyses also revealed that neither genus is a meliphagid honeyeater, nor even in the same part of the evolutionary path of songbirds as meliphagids. Instead, these Hawaiian birds are divergent members of a group that includes deceptively dissimilar families of songbirds (waxwings, neotropical silky flycatchers and palm chats). The researchers have placed these birds in their own new family, the Mohoidae.

"This was something that we were not expecting at all," said Fleischer. "It's a great example of how much we can learn about systematics and evolution by applying new technologies like ancient DNA analysis to old museum specimens."

A DNA rate calibration suggests that these Hawaiian taxa diverged from their closest living ancestor 14-17 million years ago, coincident with the estimated earliest arrival of a bird-pollinated plant lineage in Hawaii. Convergent evolution is illustrated well by nectar-feeding birds, but the morphological, behavioral and ecological similarity of Moho and Chaetoptila to the Australasian honeyeaters makes these groups a particularly striking example of the phenomenon.

All five members of the family Mohoidae were medium-sized songbirds with slender, slightly downward curved bills with unique scroll-edged and fringed tongues, making them very specialized nectar-feeding birds. They inhabited undisturbed forests on most of the main Hawaiian islands.

Although the cause for the extinction of the Mohoidae species is not definitely known, disease, human development and introduced species like mosquitoes, mongooses and rats are thought to play a significant role. The last member of the family Mohoidae to be positively identified was a Kauai o'o (Moho braccatus) in the Alakai Swamp on Kauai in 1987.

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081211121827.htm

[surroundx]

LeCroy, Mary. (2011). Type specimens of birds in the American Museum of Natural History. Part 9. Passeriformes: Zosteropidae and Meliphagidae. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 348: 1-193.