Po'o-uli - Melamprosops phaeosoma

Images: The Po'o-uli. These images are in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code. It has been photograped by Paul E. Baker, an U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employee.

Some authorities categorize this group as the family Drepanididae (Clements 2007).

The Po'o-uli is a chunky, 14 cm long, short-tailed passerine with a heavy somewhat finch-like bill. Adult Po'o-uli are brown above and greyish-white below, with a broad black mask extending behind the eye. They are grey above their mask, shading into a brown crown. A bold, pale patch can be found just behind their mask. Juvenile birds are similar in colouring, but buffier below with a smaller mask without grey above. The Po'o-uli's song is a quiet jumble of chittering notes, while their call is a loud chirk, often in short series. (BirdLife International 2006)

Images: Different sides of a Po'o-uli. These images are in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code. It has been photograped by Paul E. Baker, an U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employee.

This bird fed primarily on snails, insects, and spiders, and occasionally fruit (Pratt et al. 1997; BirdLife International 2006).

The only two known nests of this species were found in `ohi`a trees (Pratt et al. 1997; BirdLife International 2006).

The Po'o-uli is endemic to Maui in the Hawaiian Islands (U.S.A.), where it is found in remote `ohi`a forest at 1,400-2,100 m, but this may be suboptimal habitat as subfossil evidence indicates that it occurred in much drier habitat at 300-1,500 m (Mountainspring et al. 1990; Reilly 1998). (BirdLife International 2004b; BirdLife International 2006)

Image: Map showing the former distribution range of the Po'o-uli (Melamprosops phaeosoma) on the Hawaiian island of Maui (coloured red). Created by Peter Maas for The Sixth Extinction website on 23 January 2011. This image has been released under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives 3.0 Licence.

The Po'o-uli was discovered in 1973, in the Ko`olau Forest Reserve on the north-eastern flanks of Haleakala (Pratt et al. 1997; Rosa et al. 1998) and estimated to number fewer than 200 birds. During 1975-1985, there was a 90% decline in the po'o-uli's population density in the upper Hanawi watershed (Mountainspring et al. 1990). In 1995, only five to seven birds were known but, by mid-1997, only three individuals could be found (two males and one possibly female). Each of these three found birds had distinct home ranges in Hanawi Natural Area Reserve (NAR) and the immediately adjacent Haleakala National Park (Baker 2001; BirdLife International 2004a). A few unlocated individuals may have existed in the wild, but the wild population was functionally zero since the three known birds occurred in separate, non-overlapping home ranges and no breeding was probable without intervention. (BirdLife International 2006)

In 2002, one of the remaining individuals, the lone female, was caught and released within the territory of one of the males, in an attempt to get the two to breed. However, the translocated bird did not remain in the area. In 2003, captive breeding efforts began when members of the Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project attempted to locate and trap all remaining birds. Only one bird, a male, was finally captured on 9 September 2004 and brought to the Maui Bird Conservation Center in Olinda, in an attempt to captively breed the bird. However, biologists could not find a mate for the male before it died of avian malaria on 28 November 2004. Biologists are now searching for the two possible remaining birds, which have not been seen for over a year and are probably dead too. The captive male bird was most likely the very last of his kind. (BirdLife International 2004a; Wikipedia contributors 2007)

The po'o-uli declined and became eventually extinct due to habitat destruction and modification, the rapid spread of disease-carrying mosquitoes in the lowlands (Mountainspring et al.1990), predation by introduced rats, cats and small Indian mongoose Herpestes auropunctatus. Another factor is competition for food with introduced rats and garlic snails Oxychilus alliarius, which caused the decline of the native land snails, an important food source for this bird. Disturbance by helicopters, especially during the nesting season, may have contributed as well (Pratt et al. 1997). (BirdLife International 2006)

The 30 km² Hanawi NAR was created for the protection of this species in 1986. In order to prevent the spread of mosquitoes into upper elevation forests and the restoration of more lower elevation habitat, all pigs were eradicated from three fences areas. (Pratt et al. 1997; Reily 1998; Rosa et al. 1998; BirdLife International 2006) Bringing isolated birds together in the wild as well as captive breeding efforts failed (BirdLife International 2004a).

Tissue samples have been taken from the captive male for possible future cloning, but as neither birds of the opposite sex are now available it will be unlikely that it can be resurrected by cloning in the near future (Wikipedia contributors 2007).

Do you know any museum specimens? Please contact this website.

The Po'o-uli belongs to one of the world's most threatened bird families, the Hawaiian honeycreepers (Drepanididae). 

Po'o-uli - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Baker, P. E. (2001) Status and distribution of the Po'ouli (Melamprosops phaeosoma) in the Hanawi natural area reserve between December 1995 and June 1997. Pp. 144-150 in J. M. Scott, S. Conant and C. van Riper, eds. Ecology, conservation and management of endemic Hawaiian birds: a vanishing avifauna. : Cooper Ornithological Society (Studies in Avian Biology 22).

BirdLife International 2004a. Dark day for poor Po'o-uli. News Release (03-12-2004). Downloaded on 22 January 2007.

BirdLife International 2004b. Melamprosops phaeosoma. In: IUCN 2006. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 22 January 2007.

BirdLife International (2006) Species factsheet: Melamprosops phaeosoma. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 15/4/2007.

Clements, J. (2007). The Clements Checklist of the Birds of the World. 6th ed. ISBN 978-0-7136-8695-1.

Mountainspring, S., Casey, T. L. C., Kepler, C. B. and Scott, J. M. (1990) Ecology, behavior, and conservation of the Po'o-uli (Melamprosops phaeosoma). Wilson Bull. 102: 109-122.

Pratt, T. K., Kepler, C. B. and Casey, T. L. C. (1997) Po'ouli (Melanprosops phaeosoma). Pp. 1-16 in A. Poole and F. Gill, eds. The birds of North America, No. 272. Philadelphia, and Washington, DC: The Academy of Natural Sciences, and The American Ornithologists' Union.

Reilly, S. E. (1998) Saving the Po`o-uli Melamprosops phaeosoma, the world's rarest bird. 'Elepaio 58: 17-18.

Rosa, K., Hopper, D. and Reilly, S. (1998) Draft environment assessment for possible management actions to save the Po'ouli. Honolulu: US Fish and Wildlife Service, Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Forestry and Wildlife.

Wikipedia contributors (2007), "Poʻo-uli," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Po%CA%BBo-uli&oldid=124921860 (accessed May 5, 2007).