#kaua'i o'o

[lowcountry-gothic]

Hawaiian Birds, by Michelle Cheng.

[occupiedtonkin]

Extinct birbs

[wyverwithy]

The animals officially declared extinct in 2023

[dragoncarrion]

I think part of what makes the recording of the last Kaua'i 'o'o so heart wrenching is the fact that thousands, maybe even millions of people have heard the song of that lonely bird, yet the one who that song was meant for never heard it and never will, because they were no more. He didn't know he was the last one calling out in vain

[magic-and-sadness]

Escape triassic fall fandom wya🗣🗣🗣🗣(the video hasnt even been out for a whole week. I wail at no one. Much like the kaua'i o'o huh)

[proton-wobbler]

Duplicate Submissions

Alright, here is the list of duplicate birds that were submitted to this poll:

American Robin, Canada Goose, Dovekie, Eurasian Jay, Hoatzin, Blue-bellied Roller, Smew, Hoopoe, Dark-eyed Junco, Painted Bunting, Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Rifleman (Titipoumano), Archeopterix, Hooded Crow, Roseate Spoonbill, Northern Lapwing, European Starling, Steller's Jay, Great Auk, Eclectus Parrot, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Spotted Towhee, Resplendent Quetzal, Vermilion Flycatcher, Kaua'i O'o, Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Hooded Pitohui, Rainbow Bee-eater, Long-tailed Tit (Shima Enaga), Sunbittern, Varied Thrush, Pied Currawong, Rock Pigeon, Domestic Chicken, Northern Gannet, Diederik Cuckoo, Yellow-headed Picathartes, Temminck's Tragopan, Greater Lophorina, Parotia, Grey Butcherbird, Green Jay, Horned Screamer, Magnificent Frigatebird, Spinifex Pigeon, Gorgeted Puffleg, Zebra Dove, Common House Martin, Swordbill Hummingbird, Greater Roadrunner, Rufous-crested Coquette, Wallcreeper, Racket-tailed Roller, Himalayan Monal, Crested Pigeon, Inaccessible Island Rail, Brown Creeper, Tufted Titmouse, White Wagtail, Bobolink, Shoebill Stork, Australian Brushturkey, black-throated magpie-jay, Greater Blue-eared Starling, spangled cotinga

This list will continue to be updated, but I'm not going to pin it to the top since technically these guys are not the focus of the poll (I just think they're neat :3). The tag placed on pics of these birds is ELIMINATED, as someone asked about tagging them and I figured out how to use the Mass Post Editor >:3

[entryn17]

watching that one calarts student film about the kaua'i 'o'o and crying ugly UGLY tears

[resolvedbrunette]

I did some additional research and apparently the last female Kauai 'O'o died somewhere during 1982-1983, so the last male (recorded in 1987) had been singing his call for years trying to find a mate who would sing back. I am devastated at the loss of this wonderful creature. Hoping I can return to Kaua'i before my body is too weak to expedition and hike, so that I can document more of the endemic fauna than last time (2018).

[ceramicdove]

In the youtube comment section for the audio recording of the last living kaua'i 'o'o bird's mating call and I am fascinated by whatever plane of incomprehensible shit this guy is on

[bugwashere1031]

When someone asks the rise bois their favorite animals raph says something like a bird or tortise because he doesnt want to sound basic but his fav is really just any dog

Mikey is probably super specific (like a kaua'i o'o or smth) and he did research about it and hyperfixated on that animal so he now knows literally every fact about it

Tbh leo would just say some bs like a lion or tiger because they're cool

And donnie prefers robots because he doesnt like the unpredictablity of animals but secretly is kinda into entomology

[rjzimmerman]

The sad song of extinction

Kaua'i 'O'o (1975) by H. Douglas Pratt

I was reading a review of the documentary, “32 Sounds” in the New York Times, and read the following intriguing story within the review:

Early in Sam Green’s relentlessly curious documentary “32 Sounds,” the filmmaker asks an employee of the British Library Sound Archive — one of the world’s largest collections of audio recordings — if she has a favorite sound. Choosing among the archive’s nearly 7 million options, she cues up a 1987 recording of the mating call of the Moho braccatus, a Hawaiian bird with dark plumage and bright shocks of yellow sprouting from its legs. [The local name for the bird has been the “Kauai O’o.”]

The Moho braccatus was declared endangered in 1973, and by the early 1980s its population had dwindled to two, one male and one female. In 1982, the female was killed in a storm. And so this heartbreaking recording depicts the male’s determined mating call — a lilting, hauntingly hopeful whistle — ringing out five years after the death of the only bird who could possibly answer it.

For some reason, maybe my current mood, I was deeply affected by that story about the Kauai O’o. The darkness and loneliness of extinction. Our human role in the extinction. The “Sixth Extinction,” attributable to us.

So I decided to explore the story a little, and found a few videos about the bird, three of which I’m posting below. The first is called, “Racing Extinction,” a little over two-minute take on extinction, with the primary feature being the Kauai O’o. The second is an animated story about the mating of a boy and girl Kauai O’o and its tragic ending (listen at the end for the birdsong). It’s called “Vanishing Voices: a farewell to the O’o.” It’s about three a half minutes. The last one shows a musical score of the birdsong, with a few human-produced sounds overlying the birdsong. It’s entitled, “Kaua’i o’o Melody.” It’s less than a minute long.

Enjoy! Might make you sad.

[nocturnal-stims]

hi! may i have a stimboard based on the Kaua'i O'o bird? I have been thinking about this bird nonstop ever since I heard it's story.

And what a tragic story it is! I'm going to be busy for a few days and updating via que but when I get back I'll get to work on it right away.

[dragoncarrion]

DNI if the recording of the last Kaua'i 'o'o doesn't make your heart shatter into a million pieces

[nearcrested]

I wish more people talked about the Kaua'i o'o. People know the golden toad because of its recent extinction and because of the moving story of the lone final male.

Maybe the Kaua'i o'o was just gone too soon to be loved, but I will remember it forever. It went extinct in 1987 and there aren't many photographs of it, but there is one audio recording of the last male. He sang his half of a duet that he would have shared with a mate, but he was the only one left. His song is so beautiful, but so lonely and so haunting, and fills me with such a sorrowful feeling.

I wish more he had a name. I wish more people remembered him and his lonely song.

[proton-wobbler]

Kaua'i O'o (Moho braccatus)

"They're extinct and have a really sad story, and I would like everyone else to hear the last male's song and be sad too." "you said to submit birds that "have changed your *life*-- okay, maybe not that deep" but this bird has LEGITIMATELY CHANGED MY LIFE. i watched this video: [posted below] (please please please watch it it's a short animated film on John Sincock's experiences in Kauai with the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō) just as i was finishing Bill Bryson's 'A Short History of Nearly Everything', in which he chronicles the human impact on rate of human extinction--and especially birds, SINGLEHANDEDLY (or doublehandedly, since it was the combo of the animation and the book) kickstarting my obsession with extinct birds. I already really liked birds, but there's something just so tragically gorgeous about the extinct ones. I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS ABOUT THEM AND NONE OF THEM ARE COHERENT ENOUGH FOR WORDS."

Hey so I cried so much over this video and I already knew about the story of the Kaua'i O'o. Hawaiian birds are facing extinction at an alarming rate and really need all of the help they can get. Many other native bird species are struggling right now with habitat loss, invasive species, and mosquito borne illness threatening the last of their populations.

As for Kaua'i O'o, this is a bird we can never get back. There is no possible hope hiding on another island, because that's not how island birds work. The family this bird belongs to, Mohoidae or Hawaiian honeycreepers, is an entirely extinct family of birds, and the only avian family that has gone entirely extinct in modern times.

If the story of this bird impacts you, please hold that impact close to your heart. Fighting against habitat degradation is hard enough already, but it is possible to save what we have left.

Sources:

While not bird specific, this organization works with all kinds of Hawaiian wildlife. I wanted to include something at the end of this, as it can be too easy to fall into the doom-and-gloom cycle and forget that we can do things to help impact our world.