Niihau Elepaio (Monarcha sp.)

The island of Ni’ihau, which is located very close to Kaua’i in the Hawaiian Islands, was once covered with typical Hawaiian lowland forests, which now are gone completely.

Today, the island harbors a few sea bird breeding colonies, but once it almost for certain also had several land bird species, some of which might very well have been endemic to the island; among these might have been a distinct form of Elepaio, which otherwise is known to inhabit the islands of Hawai’i, O’ahu and Kaua’i with distinct, island-specific species on each island.

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edited: 07.05.2022