The olomao (''Myadestes lanaiensis'') is a small, dark

solitaire Solitaire is any tabletop game which one can play by oneself, usually with cards, but also with dominoes. The term "solitaire" is also used for single-player games of concentration and skill using a set layout tiles, pegs or stones. These game ...

endemic to

Maui The island of Maui (; Hawaiian: ) is the second-largest of the islands of the state of Hawaii at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2) and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is the largest of Maui County's four islands, which ...

, Lānai and

Molokai Molokai , or Molokai (), is the fifth most populated of the eight major islands that make up the Hawaiian Islands, Hawaiian Islands archipelago in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It is 38 by 10 miles (61 by 16 km) at its greatest length an ...

in the

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands ( haw, Nā Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kur ...

. It is listed as Critically Endangered or possibly

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

. The extinct ʻāmaui, either a subspecies of ''M. lanaiensis'' or a distinct species (as ''M. woahensis''), was endemic to

Oʻahu Oahu () ( Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over two-thirds of the population of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The island of O’ ...

Description

It grows up to 7 inches in length. The male and female of the species look similar. It is dark brown above and gray below with blackish legs.

Call

Its song consists of a complex melody of flute-like notes, liquid warbles, and gurgling whistles. The call is a catlike rasp, with an alternate high pitched note similar to a police whistle.

Behavior and diet

It occurs in densely vegetated gulches, frequenting the understory where it often perches motionless in a hunched posture. Like other native Hawaiian thrushes, it quivers its wings and feeds primarily on

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

and

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

Conservation

The olomao is still classified as Critically Endangered due to the possibility that an extremely small population or individuals may still exist. The last definitive sighting occurred on Oahu in the 1850s, on Lanai in 1933, and on Molokai in 1980 in the Kamakou Preserve. In the late 19th century, it was considered common to abundant on the Maui, Lanai, and Molokai, but land clearing, including the establishment and subsequent development of Lānai City, and avian malaria brought on by introduced mosquitoes decimated the birds. Introduced animals such as

feral pigs The feral pig is a domestic pig which has gone feral, meaning it lives in the wild. They are found mostly in the Americas and Australia. Razorback and wild hog are Americanisms applied to feral pigs or boar-pig hybrids. Definition A feral pi ...

(which create pools from their wallows for breeding mosquitoes) also aided in its demise.

Taxonomy

It is closely related to the other species of Hawaiian thrushes, the

puaiohi The puaiohi (''Myadestes palmeri''), or small Kauai thrush, is a rare species of songbird in the Thrush (bird), thrush family, Turdidae, that is Endemism, endemic to the Hawaiian island of Kauai, Kauai. It is closely related to the other three en ...

(''M. palmeri''), ōmao (''M. obscurus''), and the probably extinct kāmao (''M. myadestinus''). Maui birds may have constituted a separate subspecies or race, but became extinct before any studies could be performed. Three subspecies are recognized: *''M. l. woahensis'' - ʻāmaui *''M. l. lanaiensis'' - Lānai thrush *''M. l. rutha'' - Molokai thrush

References

External links

Species factsheet
- BirdLife International
3D view
of specimen RMNH 110.026 at

Naturalis Naturalis Biodiversity Center ( nl, Nederlands Centrum voor Biodiversiteit Naturalis) is a national museum of natural history and a research center on biodiversity in Leiden, Netherlands. It was named the European Museum of the Year 2021. Alth ...

, Leiden (requires

QuickTime QuickTime is an extensible multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. Created in 1991, the latest Mac version, QuickTime X, is avai ...

browser plugin) Myadestes Endemic birds of Hawaii Biota of Lanai Biota of Maui Biota of Molokai Critically endangered fauna of Hawaii Birds described in 1891 Taxa named by Scott Barchard Wilson Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Turdidae-stub