Maui nukupuʻu
Maui nukupuʻu (Hemignathus affinis) was a small Hawaiian honeycreeper that lived only on Maui. It was about 5 inches long and inhabited the island’s eastern, high-elevation forests where ʻōhiʻa lehua and koa trees grow, because these trees attracted insects the bird ate. Males had green on the head and nape with yellow on the face, neck, belly, and bottom; females were olive green, and juveniles were gray and green. The bird used a short, inch-long bill to peck for insects in tree bark. It survived in the Hanawi Area Reserve from about 3,000 to 4,500 feet in elevation and had once lived at lower elevations and on West Maui.
The Maui nukupuʻu declined due to habitat loss and degradation by introduced animals, and because malaria carried by introduced mosquitoes spread in the forests. It was common in the 1900s, thought extinct by 1963, but was rediscovered in 1980. In the 1980s the population was estimated at around 28 birds; by 1994 only one male was sighted, and later sightings were rare or probably misidentified as the similar amakihi. The last confirmed sighting was in the late 1990s. There have been unconfirmed reports since, but they were not reliable.
In 2021 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the species was most likely extinct, and on October 16, 2023, it was formally removed from the Endangered Species Act due to extinction.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 14:55 (CET).