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An original watercolor created in 1986. My website allowed the owner to find me to offer the original for sale; a bit pricey, but I was delighted!
Jack Jeffries and Marian's first husband went on a trip for Fish and Wildlife, and were able to photograph a Kauai O'o; her husband obtained a photo she was able to work from to create this image.
From various websites: extinct. From Wikipedia: The bird was a cavity nester in the thickly forested canyons of Kaua?i. Many of its relatives have also become extinct, such as the Hawai'i 'o'o, Bishop's 'o'o, and O'ahu 'o'o. Little is known about these extinct birds. The species may have become extinct from a large range of problems, including mosquito-transmitted diseases, which caused the species to retreat to higher ground. Higher elevation forests lack tree cavities, so few, if any, nests could be made. The final blow was two hurricanes coming within ten years of each other. They destroyed many of the old trees with cavities, and prohibited tree growth when the second one arrived, causing the species to disappear. The bird was last sighted in 1985, and a sound recording was made in 1987 by David Boynton.[3] It is conceivable that the species may survive undetected as the species had been proclaimed extinct twice: once in the 1940s (later rediscovered in 1950) and again from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, being rediscovered by S. R. Sabo. However, it has a loud and distinctive call, and intensive surveys have failed to find any since 1987.
Copyright Marian Berger. All rights reserved; images are protected under US copyright laws and may not be copied or reproduced in any manner.