ʻŌʻu were once common honeycreepers across all the main Hawaiian Islands, but the species is now presumed to be extinct.
΄Ō΄ū numbers declined precipitously in the 20th century, primarily due to mosquito-transmitted disease. The last confirmed sighting was on Kauaʻi in 1989.
Some biologists haven't given up hope that the ʻōʻū may still be out there. A handful of credible sightings on Hawaiʻi Island over the last few years have spurred interest in employing new detection techniques, like automated recorders and eDNA, to find what may be the last ʻōʻū in Hawaiʻi.
AMTJ_Ou Spectrogram Video.mp4
Audio credit: Steven R. Pantle, Macaulay Library at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology (ML 5897)
