Birds are the majestic creatures that make our skies colorful. Birds of all feathers have made the Earth a much beautiful place to live in. They have helped spread forests and jungles spread through pollination and seed distribution.
There are different kinds of birds. Some of them live in the sea and glide through cliffs while others fly through the vast plains looking for their prey and others seek to hide from their predators inside tree trunks.
But, there is one species of bird that has become so rare that this animal is deemed to have been extinct.
The bird is one of the endemic type of bird that can only be found in one single place on Earth which makes it more worthwhile to see and examine its magnificent beauty. Find out which is the rarest bird in the world.
po’ouli-rarest bird
The rarest bird in the world is the po’ouli or the Black-faced Honeycreeper. It is a critically endangered and is even thought to be extinct at some time.
The Black-faced Honeycreeper is found only in the islands of Hawaii. The po’ouli is a brownish bird while adults have a silvery mask while younger ones have black ones.
from afar
The po’ouli was not discovered until around 1973 by students of the University of Hawaii that was found in the slopes of the mountains of Maui.
The po’ouli is one of the few birds that only live in the islands of Hawaii eversince 1923. It is very unique and endemic to the islands. It is also the first species that has an ancient lineage of honeycreepers found in the island.
It is also one of the longest living bird species of honeycreepers in the island by outliving all of its close relatives.
In fact, no other bird species has any other structure similar to the honeycreeper.
po’ouli
The po’ouli feeds in snails and insects and are only native to the ohi’a lehua forests in Maui. The reason why the po’ouli has become critically endangered is due to deforestation and infrastructure expansion.
The state of Hawaii has already established the Hanawi Natural Area Reserve that aims to preserve the bird and help it provide a safe environment for the birds to repopulate.
In fact, in 1997 only three individuals were known to have existed and were immediately placed inside the reserve.
By 2002, another female was captured and was taken inside the territory of a male po’ouli in a desperate attempted to get them to breed. Unfortunately, the female flew back to her own territory.
What Do I Think ?
By 2004, another male was captured but soon died. Tissue samples were taken from the animal for future cloning use but the fact that there was no female sample to imprint the DNA structure with causes problems with the cloning process of the po’ouli.
There have been extensive surveys around the area on whether the residents have seen such creature but have failed to locate them. As of now, the po’ouli is listed as critically endangered and might soon be placed in the extinct category.