Listen to the Last Song of The Extinct Kauaʻi ʻōʻō

Hawaii, like many tropical islands, is home to many endemic species, ones found no where else on Earth.

The Kauaʻi ʻōʻō was one of those, a beautiful small bird with an exquisite birdsong that feels almost magical.

The Kauaʻi ʻōʻō was a part of the Mohoidae family, a group entirely unique to the Hawaiian Islands. With its striking plumage of rich, velvety black feathers and a bright yellow throat, this bird was an undoubted jewel of the Kauaʻi rainforests. Males and females would engage in a heartwarming duet, a call-and-response style song, making them iconic soundscape contributors to the forests.

The extinction of the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō is a poignant and all-too-familiar tale of the repercussions of human intervention in delicate ecosystems. It underscores the need for proactive conservation measures and the dangers of introducing non-native species to vulnerable habitats.

Even though this special bird was known to be in trouble, “Federal protection came too late to reverse these species’ decline, and it’s a wake-up call on the importance of conserving imperiled species before it’s too late,” Fish and Wildlife Service director Martha Williams said in a statement.

The last known sighting of the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō was in the 1980s. A haunting recording from 1987 captures the song of the last known male, singing in vain for a mate that would never answer. This poignant call stands as a stark reminder of the bird’s tragic fate and the fragility of island ecosystems.

Listen to a recording of the bird’s beautiful song below, the last known sighting and audio observation ever made.

“Island species are particularly vulnerable to extinction, as they often exist nowhere else. The Kauaʻi ʻōʻō, a black bird with distinctive yellow leg feathers, fell victim to the common culprits of habitat depletion (their homes were replaced by colonizers’ crops like sugarcane), disease, and predation by invasive species.”