Kāmaʻo

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Kama'O

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Turdidae
Genus:	Myadestes
Species:	M. myadestinus

Binomial name

Myadestes myadestinus
(Stejneger, 1887)

The Kamao or the Large Kauai Thrush, was one of two species of thrushes that are endemic to the island of Kauai. It lived throughout most of the islands forests in the beginning of European sighting. It was a large bird that was nine inches long and was powdered in color. It was the largest of all the thrushes, with the Kamao at nine inches, the Omao, Puaiohi, and Amaui at eight inches, and the two Olomao at seven and a half inches in length. It was a brownish backed bird with a faded brown or grey belly. It had two black legs and a light brown head. The males had a large cream yellow colored patch under its eyes. The females lacked this feature and had black lores. Its bill is a mix of yellow and black all in one. It had a long greyish tail with white coverts underneath. It is similar to the other thrush on the island, the Puaiohi, but can be distinguished. The males yellow eye patch is not found on Puaiohi, the Puaiohi have a white eye ring. The female are different from the Puaiohi by having their dark lores, Puaiohi lack a noticeable lore on their eyes. The black legs of the Kamao differ greatly from the pink legs of the Puaiohi. The chicks of the Kamao are mottled and spotted, just like the Omao of the Big Island. They tend not to lose this spotted plumage till they are six months old.

Kamao are very useful in the environment. They are very good seed disperses, as they tend to move into new areas and drop seeds, creating new forests. It was wanted by many bird watchers and was exceptionally rare. The Kamao is a bird that is protected by several major documents.

The Kamao was once one of the most common birds on the Isaland of Kauai, existing in almost all of its forests in the 1890s it was also one of the most well distributed species on Kauai. It survived in most of the areas on Kauai and was tolerant of all the water that fell as rain in the area. With about one to fifeteen meters of rain a year depending on location, the Kamao had differently sized territories. The more rain an area had the more lusher an area was and less range a bird needed because the food was so near by. . In these places the canopy of the tops of trees covered almost all of the forest floor making the forest a dark place. There were mostly O’hia trees in these forests, which were between two feet to eighty-two feet in height. The species does not seen to use the bogs near by in its life, however, it seems that they may have nested in the cavities of old trees.

The early scientists that studied these birds noted a strange similarity in the diets of all the Hawaiian Thrushes. Like the other species, the Kamao was mainly frugivorous. The ate mostly the berries of the opiko, olopua, lapalapa and‘akia. Also included in their diet were the petals of the Ie’Ie’ Flower, insects, spiders, and caterpillars. In certain times of the year they may swarm to ‘akia plants and eat the poisonous berries. One part of the year, they ate noticeably more insects, which may have been the breeding season, in which all the Hawaiian Thrushes eat noticeably more insects, which may then take up fifty percent instead of the regular eight percent of the diet.

The Hawaiian Thrushes are more or less loners, they tend to avoid others and live alone or in pairs. They however actively sing in response to each one. As one finishes, another starts and responds. This can last from sunrise to sunset. With all this information, we still do not know one major piece of the puzzle, the nest, no nest has ever been found that belong to a Kamao. Even though we have not found a nest, we do know that around August the bird are busy. The females single oviduct swells and a male Kamao testes swelled up. Along with this were month old Kamao, which were sight in September, pointing to a breeding season in August. However like the other thrushes, it too should have a long breeding season with a certain height in one part of the breeding. In other words, the birds make more chicks in August but lay eggs throughout the year.

This species was severely endangered there were a total of three-hundred thirty-seven birds around in 1970. When Hurricane Iwa struck Kauai in 1985, the birds habitat was severely destroyed and the population dropped greatly. Also including may deaths of this species were mosquitos, cats and introduced birds. The mosquitos brought many new diseases upon many of the birds and apparently many infected birds died. They died from a reaction to diseases. Avian Pox fo instance is transmitted by the mosquito, once infected, the bird begins to produce small hard or soft lumps. These lumps can not be removed natural and until the birds have resistance to the disease, the lumps will grow till they hit the joints. Once they hit the joints, the bird will become paralyzed and will die of starvation.

The story of the Kamao Extinction is a simple one. In the 1890s it was the most common bird on Kauai and was in no position of going extinct. In the 1930s, while other species were withdrawing to deeper forests, the Kamao continued to live in low elevation forest and even in areas full of introduced plants. The species was still relatively common, but numbers began dropping in the northern part of its range. By the 1950s, The Kamao was in serious decline. The birds quickly disappeared from low elevation forests and became constricted into the Koke’e and Alakai Reserves. In 1970, the Kamao was listed as an endangered species and was a species to be looked over by the government. In the 1980s Due to Hurricane Inki, numbers still dropped and went down to twenty-five or so birds left in the Alakai Preserve. Hurricane are damaging directly and indirectly to the Kamao. It is one thing that hurricane go through the habitat of the Kamao and destroy it , but can drive away birds. At first these birds would head to the lowland valleys, and this was a good idea. With walls on both sides, damaging winds can not enter, and the birds are safe. Now though, with the release of the mosquito, the protective valleys are now traps. The birds come in and roost in the trees. As the birds sleep, the are bitten by mosquitos and the disease is transferred. Many of the birds in the valley die, but a few live and go up to the high elevations where the clean population is. The infected birds go near the clean birds and they too get infected. Finally all the birds die and the species is extripated from the area. In the 1990s, the species was then hit hard by another hurricane, and by 1993, the species was not seen again. Weather was not the only major threat. Rats, which were released with the Europeans and the Polynesians. The are destructive and and not only destroy large tracts of forests, but also steal chicks from the nests of birds. This has been seen in the Puaiohi the Kamao’s close relative. Introduced plants tend to push birds out because the native fruiting plants and replaces them. A plan to create a dam would create pools of water that would attract more mosquitos and more bacterium would be spread and more birds would perish. A breeding program would be able to make the species last and give conservationists more time to protect the land and improve it. Unfortunately there was nothing done for this species except constant tabs on the species till 1993, when the specicies was not sighted. The tried to find the species in 1995 and 1997 but no Large Kauai Thrush were ever spotted. The Lacey Act prohibits the import and export of this species in and out of the US, unless allowed by the government says otherwise. Exporting of the species includes the moving of the eggs birds and parts of this bird. The Large Kauai Thrush is also protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which allows the species to be protected as it moves in and out of the Alakai Preserve in search of food. This species is listed under the ICUN as an Endangered to Possibly Extinct bird. It was originally put down in 1970 as an Endangered species.