The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches generally have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where they are usually resident and do not migrate. They have a worldwide native distribution except for Australia and the polar regions. The family Fringillidae contains more than two hundred species divided into fifty genera. It includes the canaries, siskins, redpolls, serins, grosbeaks and euphonias, as well as the morphologically divergent Hawaiian honeycreepers.
The Laysan rail or Laysan crake was a flightless bird endemic to the Northwest Hawaiian Island of Laysan. This small island was and still is an important seabird colony, and sustained a number of endemic species, including the rail. It became extinct due to habitat loss by domestic rabbits, and ultimately World War II.
The Kauaʻi ʻōʻō or ʻōʻōʻāʻā was the last member of the ʻōʻō (Moho) genus within the Mohoidae family of birds from the islands of Hawaiʻi. The entire family is now extinct. It was previously regarded as a member of the Australo-Pacific honeyeaters.
The Hawaiʻi ʻōʻō is a member of the extinct genus of the ʻōʻōs (Moho) within the extinct family Mohoidae. It was previously regarded as member of the Australo-Pacific honeyeaters (Meliphagidae).
The cardueline finches are a subfamily, Carduelinae, one of three subfamilies of the finch family Fringillidae, the others being the Fringillinae and the Euphoniinae. The Hawaiian honeycreepers are now included in this subfamily. Except for the Hawaiian honeycreepers which underwent adaptive radiation in Hawaii and have evolved a broad range of diets, cardueline finches are specialised seed eaters, and unlike most passerine birds, they feed their young mostly on seeds, which are regurgitated. Besides this, they differ from the other finches in some minor details of their skull. They are adept at opening seeds and clinging to stems, unlike other granivorous birds, such as sparrows and buntings, which feed mostly on fallen seeds. Some members of this subfamily are further specialised to feed on a particular type of seed, such as cones in the case of crossbills. Carduelines forage in flocks throughout the year, rather than keeping territories, and males defend their females rather than a territory or nest.
The Bishop's ‘ō‘ō or Molokai ‘ō‘ō was the penultimate member of the extinct genus of the ‘ō‘ōs (Moho) within the extinct family Mohoidae. It was previously regarded as member of the Australo-Pacific honeyeaters (Meliphagidae). Lionel Walter Rothschild named it after Charles Reed Bishop, the founder of the Bishop Museum.
Mottled mannikin or mottled munia is a species of estrildid finch breeding in New Ireland. This species is also introduced to Pohnpei. It has an estimated global extent of occurrence of 20,000 to 50,000 km2. It is found in subtropical/ tropical (lowland) dry grassland habitat. The New Hanover mannikin has sometimes been treated as a subspecies of mottled mannikin with the name Hunstein's mannikin for the combined taxa. The status of mottled mannikin is evaluated as Least Concern. The males are similarly colored to the extinct Hawaiian ʻUla ʻAi Hāwane, a Hawaiian honeycreeper.
Ciridops is an extinct genus of Hawaiian honeycreeper species that occurred in prehistoric and historic times on the Hawaiian islands of Hawaii, Molokai, Kauai and Oahu. This genus was created in 1892 by Alfred Newton in an article published by the journal Nature on the basis of the ʻula-ʻai-hawane, which was named Fringilla anna by Sanford B. Dole in 1879.
Loxops is a Hawaiian honeycreeper genus in the finch family, Fringillidae. Most of them are commonly known as ʻakepa.
Pritchardia affinis, the Hawai'i pritchardia, is a species of palm tree that is endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. Wild populations currently exist on the leeward side of the Island of Hawaiʻi. It was most likely cultivated by Native Hawaiians, so its exact native range is uncertain. P. affinis reaches a height of 10–25 m (33–82 ft). It is threatened by rats and pigs, which damage the trees and eat the seeds before they can grow. It is a federally listed endangered species of the United States. Its fruit was reportedly the preferred food of the now-extinct ula-ai-hawane—a niche that has been seemingly filled by the introduced lavender waxbill.
The kāmaʻo or large Kauaʻi thrush was a small, dark solitaire endemic to Kauaʻi in the Hawaiian Islands.
The mao or ma'oma'o is a passerine bird belonging to the genus Gymnomyza in the honeyeater family Meliphagidae. It is an endangered species and is endemic to the Samoan Islands.
The Lānaʻi ʻalauahio is an extinct subspecies of Hawaiian honeycreeper, found on much of the island of Lana'i in the Hawaiian archipelago. It apparently was common until the early 1900s, when there appeared to have been a steep decline in birds on the island. It was similar to the Maui alauahio and this species may have reacted similarly to its existing relative, to which it was considered conspecific. This bird was one of several to vanish from Lana'i, along with others such as the Lanai hookbill.
The stout-legged finch is an extinct species of finch, in the 'Hawaiian honeycreeper' group. Subfossil remains have been found only on the island of Kauai and indicate that it survived up until the late Quaternary period. It probably died out when the first humans arrived in the Hawaiian Islands. The stout-legged finch would have been very vulnerable to the pests and agriculture that the humans brought with them. It was a congener of the 'ula-'ai-hawane, and therefore probably had similar colors of red, white and black.
Hawaiian honeycreepers are a group of small birds endemic to Hawaiʻi. They are members of the finch family Fringillidae, closely related to the rosefinches (Carpodacus), but many species have evolved features unlike those present in any other finch. Their great morphological diversity is the result of adaptive radiation in an insular environment. Many have been driven to extinction since the first humans arrived in Hawaii, with extinctions increasing over the last 2 centuries following European discovery of the islands, with habitat destruction and especially invasive species being the main causes.
The Kauaʻi ʻelepaio is a monarch flycatcher found on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai. It numbered 40,000 around 1970, but declined by half in the 1990s. Whether this fluctuation is natural and thus the birds' numbers will rebound or whether it signifies a novel threat remains to be seen. However, it seems the birds are making a recovery, as population density on the Alakai plateau has increased by 13% in recent years.
