O'u
Conservation Status: Extinct
Tracks featuring this species:
‘Whose dream is this, ʻŌʻū?’, Melisa Yildirim
The 'ōʻū (Psittirostra psittacea)is an extinct species of Hawaiian bird native to the Hawaiian islands. It had a dark green back and olive green underparts; males had a yellow head, while the head of females was green. Its unusual beak seems to have been adapted to feeding on the fruits of a specific vine - Freycinetia arborea. The 'ōʻū had powerful wings, which it used to fly considerable distances in search of this plant, but it also ate other fruits, buds, flowers and insects. The 'ōʻū is thought to have come into contact with mosquitoes transmitting avian malaria and fowlpox, which are lethal to most Hawaiian honeycreepers (the type of bird that the ʻōʻū belongs to), but it would have also been threatened by habitat loss and introduced predators. Island species are particularly vulnerable to these threats because of their low numbers and restricted geographical distributions. The 'ōʻū was last seen in the late 1980s.
Listen to the account of one of the last people to hear the 'ōʻū.
Photo Credit: Illustration of the ʻōʻū by Vickie Amarilis, based on a 1906 drawing by illustrator John Gerrard Keulemans.
Climate connections
While the extinction of the 'ōʻū was not connected to climate change, their fate reminds us of the fragility of life and biodiversity as a whole.
Climate change and biodiversity loss have been linked throughout Earth’s history, but human activities in the modern age are rapidly accelerating both, threatening the life-support systems for humans and other species. The interconnections between biodiversity loss and climate change means that finding solutions to one of these crises helps to mitigate the other.
Read more about the connections between biodiversity loss and climate change.
