Hawaii O’o †

Birdfinding.info ⇒  The last documented occurrence of Hawaii O’o was the collection of a specimen near Ka’au Crater on May 13, 1902.  The species was regarded as common throughout the 1800s, then declined precipitously around the turn of the century.  The biologist H. W. Henshaw reported in 1902 that over 1,000 individuals had been collected for their feathers in the forests near Hilo during 1898, but that it had become difficult to find by the time when he wrote—which ultimately proved prophetic.  Several other native Hawaiian species declined similarly at the same time, which leaves disease (likely avian malaria) as the only plausible explanation for their mass disappearance.