Animalia Life

Dysmorodrepanis munroi
TAXONOMY
Dysmorodrepanis munroi Perkins, 1919.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
English: Ou, Lanai finch, akiapolaau; French: Psittirostre de Munro; German: Ou; Spanish: Akiapolaau.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
6 in (15 cm); weight unknown. Light gray tinged with green on upperparts and whitish below, light band on wing and light mark over eyes. Most distinctive feature was bill resembling pair of pliers or a paper punch, the upper mandible curving downward, the lower mandible curving upward, leaving a gap between the two. At first glance bill looked deformed, and was once interpreted as a deformity. Some ornithologists classified the one specimen as an aberrant female of the o’u, but extraction of skull in 1986 proved it to be a distinct species.
DISTRIBUTION
Endemic to Lanai, recorded from the southwestern side.
HABITAT
Dry, montane akoko (Euphorbia lorifolia) forest at 2,000 ft (610 m) above sea level.
BEHAVIOR
Voice described by George C. Munro as “a strange bird chirp.” Monroe characterized the species as a quiet, retiring bird, easily overlooked.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Preferred food is unknown. Individual shot by Munro in 1913 had been feeding on fruit of the opuhe (Urera sandwichensis), Munro speculated it also fed on the akoko (Euphorbia lorifolia). Dissection of the stomach found native berries, but hooked bill and relatively weak jaw musculature suggest it may have fed mostly on land snails.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Not known.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Extinct. First seen alive February 22, 1913, when Munro collected a single specimen in the Kaiholena Valley of Lanai. Munro was the only person to see the species, so nearly everything known about it is in his book The Birds of Hawaii (1960). Only existing specimen (Munro’s) is in Bishop Museum in Honolulu. After 1913, Munro saw the bird on March 16, 1916, in the Kaiholena Valley, and on August 12, 1918, at Waiakeakua. The 1918 sighting was the last, by that time most of the native akoko forest on Lanai had been replaced by pineapple plantations.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
None known.

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