Kaua'i Palila

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Kaua'i Palila

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Drepanididae
Genus:	Loxioides
Species:	L. kikuichi

Binomial name

Loxioides kikuichi
(Helen James and Storrs Olson, 2006)

The Kaua'i Palila (Loxioides kikuichi) was a species of Hawaiian finch that was much larger than the Palila (Loxioides bailleui). It was probably covered in feathers of red, gold, white, and black.

[edit] Extinction

It too was a bird that was affected by drastic changes in the environment by farming. Now the dry forest is cut down and the land gets water from irrigation from streams. The ecosystem got wetter and the remaining Naio trees began to rot away. Soon the Pila's Palila was pushed to its limits and died off. It lived for a long time against human competition. Some speculate that the youngest bones date back to the 1800s. If it existed for another fifty to sixty years, scientists could have had the chance to see this bird alive. Today we know it from a few bones on the island of Kauai. We don't know if this bird ever got a name in the Hawaiian language, since it disappeared before Europeans arrived to classify the birds into the genuses that they are now put in to.

[edit] Findings’

Prehistorically, the Palila may also have inhabited Kauai. The subfossil remains found on Kauai are intriguing. They were found near sea level, where the habitat to which the species is restricted today apparently never occurred. Mamane might conceivably also have grown at lower elevations on the arid parts of Maui Nui. No Palila remains have been discovered on these interspersing islands; it is thus quite possible that the birds from Oahu and Kauai constitute the Pila's Palila, and a third species of Loxioides.</ref>. A related larger species, Pila's Palila, or Loxioides kikuichi is known exclusively from subfossil remains found on Kauai. It became extinct maybe as late as 1750, maybe much earlier.