The Ula-ai-hawane was a small, boldly patterned Hawaiian honeycreeper found only on the island of Hawaii, and it is now extinct. Its Hawaiian name translates roughly as the red bird that eats the hawane, a reference to its close bond with the native loulu fan palms, whose fruit and flowers made up much of its food. Among the honeycreepers, a family famous for its riot of colors and bill shapes, the Ula-ai-hawane still stood out for its unusual mix of silvery gray, deep crimson, and black.
It was always considered rare. Naturalists described the species formally in 1879 from a mere handful of specimens, and it was named in honor of Anna Dole, wife of a prominent Hawaiian figure. The bird was last reliably reported in the wild in 1892, with a possible, unconfirmed sighting near the Kohala mountains around 1937. Subfossil bones show that the genus Ciridops once ranged across several Hawaiian islands, meaning the bird that Western science briefly knew was already the final survivor of a much older and wider lineage. Its loss is one chapter in the wider collapse of Hawaii's honeycreepers, a group that has lost more species than almost any other bird family on Earth.
The Ula-ai-hawane was a compact honeycreeper roughly 11 centimeters long, known mainly from museum specimens and a few field descriptions rather than living observation. What set it apart was its crisp, high-contrast pattern, unusual even by the standards of its colorful family. Silvery gray on the head and upper back gave way to rich red below, offset by black wings, breast, and tail. Because so few people ever saw one alive, almost everything we know of its appearance comes from preserved skins.
| Size | About 11 cm (4.3 in) long, a small, plump honeycreeper |
| Head and throat | Distinctive silvery gray, extending onto the upper back |
| Underparts and rump | Rich red over much of the body |
| Crown, breast and shoulders | Black, contrasting sharply with the red and gray |
| Wings and tail | Black, with white on the innermost flight feathers |
| Bill and legs | Yellowish; bill short, stout, and slightly curved |
Male vs. female
Because the Ula-ai-hawane is known from so few specimens, differences between the sexes were never well established. Adult males and females appear to have shared the same striking gray, red, and black pattern, with little of the strong plumage difference seen in some other honeycreepers. Any subtle variation in the richness of the red or the extent of the gray, if it existed, was not documented in a way that survives. This uncertainty is itself part of the species' story: it vanished before naturalists could study a series of living birds closely enough to describe how males, females, and seasonal plumages differed.
Juveniles
Immature Ula-ai-hawane looked markedly plainer than adults, which is typical of many honeycreepers. Young birds were described as brownish overall, with a bluish-gray wash across the breast and a greenish-brown tone to the back, lacking the clean gray, crimson, and black of the adult. This drabber plumage would have offered better camouflage in the forest canopy while the birds matured. As with so much of the species' life history, the details are thin, drawn from only a small number of preserved young birds rather than sustained observation in the wild.
Almost nothing is known about the voice of the Ula-ai-hawane. The species was rare and elusive even during the brief window when naturalists actively sought it, and it disappeared before its songs or calls could be recorded or carefully described. No reliable account of its vocalizations survives, and because sound recording of wild birds was in its infancy when the species still lived, there is no archive to recover. We can reasonably assume, from its relatives, that it gave the soft calls and short phrases common among forest honeycreepers, but any specific description would be guesswork rather than fact.
In historical times the Ula-ai-hawane was known only from the island of Hawaii, the largest in the chain, where it inhabited wet and mesic upland forests. Records point specifically to the mountain forests of the Kohala, Hilo, and Kona districts, generally at middle to higher elevations where native loulu palms and koa-ohia forest still stood. It was never found to be common anywhere within this range.
Fossil and subfossil evidence tells a larger story. Bones assigned to the genus Ciridops have been recovered from other Hawaiian islands, including Kauai, Oahu, and Molokai, showing that these birds once occupied a far broader range across the archipelago. By the time Europeans documented the group, that distribution had already contracted to a single island, and then to scattered mountain pockets on that island. The Ula-ai-hawane naturalists knew was, in effect, the last thread of a lineage that had been unraveling for a very long time.
The Ula-ai-hawane was closely tied to the native loulu fan palms, feeding on the fruit, seeds, and flowers of several Pritchardia species, the plants Hawaiians called hawane. This tight association is preserved in its very name, and it likely shaped the bird's short, stout bill, well suited to handling palm fruit rather than probing flowers like the nectar-feeding honeycreepers. It may also have taken insects and other small foods, as many honeycreepers do, but the palm connection was clearly central.
That specialization came at a cost. Dependence on a single, declining group of plants left the bird acutely vulnerable. As loulu palms were cleared for agriculture, browsed by introduced cattle and goats, and their seeds eaten by rats, the food web the Ula-ai-hawane relied on frayed. The loss of the loulu is widely regarded as one of the key drivers of the bird's disappearance, a reminder of how narrowly specialized island species can be undone when a single resource fails.
The breeding biology of the Ula-ai-hawane was never documented. By the time naturalists went looking for it, the species was already scarce and confined to remote mountain forest, and it became extinct before anyone located a nest, described its eggs, or observed how it raised its young. As a result, nothing definite is known about its clutch size, breeding season, incubation, or the roles of the sexes in rearing chicks.
Whatever we might infer comes only by analogy with related honeycreepers, which typically build cup nests in trees and lay small clutches. But such inferences remain speculation. The complete absence of nesting records is a quiet measure of how thoroughly this bird slipped away, gone before science could learn even the most basic facts of how it perpetuated itself.
The Ula-ai-hawane cannot be seen anywhere, in the wild or in captivity, because it is extinct. There is no place to travel to and no season to plan around. What you can do is see the surviving honeycreepers that still cling to Hawaii's high forests, and view the few preserved specimens that keep this bird's memory alive.
- Visit Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge on the island of Hawaii, one of the best remaining places to see native honeycreepers such as the Iiwi and Apapane in the kind of upland forest the Ula-ai-hawane once shared.
- Explore the trails and higher elevations of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, where surviving forest birds can still be found in native ohia and koa woodland.
- Look for living relatives like the Iiwi, Apapane, and Palila, which give a sense of the color and character of the honeycreeper family the Ula-ai-hawane belonged to.
- See preserved specimens at institutions such as the Bishop Museum in Honolulu and other major natural history collections, where study skins of this and other lost Hawaiian birds are held.
- Support Hawaiian forest bird conservation, including efforts to control mosquitoes and avian malaria, protect loulu palms, and fence out feral ungulates, the same threats that helped doom the Ula-ai-hawane.
- Seek out native plant restoration sites where loulu (Pritchardia) palms are being replanted, a tangible link to the tree this bird was named for.
- Iiwi: A surviving red Hawaiian honeycreeper, but with a long, deeply curved salmon bill and scarlet body
- Apapane: A living red-and-black honeycreeper of Hawaiian forests, more uniformly crimson with a short black bill
- Palila: Another seed-specialist honeycreeper, gray and yellow rather than red, itself now critically endangered
Is the Ula-ai-hawane extinct?
Yes. It was last reliably reported in the wild in 1892, with a possible unconfirmed sighting around 1937, and is considered extinct. It is one of many Hawaiian honeycreepers lost since human settlement of the islands.
What does its name mean?
The Hawaiian name translates roughly as 'the red bird that eats the hawane,' referring to its feeding on the fruit and flowers of the native loulu, or hawane, palms (Pritchardia species).
Why did it go extinct?
Several forces combined: its heavy dependence on declining loulu palms, broad habitat loss, introduced rats and grazing animals, and the avian malaria and pox spread by introduced mosquitoes that devastated Hawaii's forest birds.
Where was it found?
In historical times it lived only in the mountain forests of the Kohala, Hilo, and Kona districts on the island of Hawaii, though subfossil bones show the genus once ranged across several other Hawaiian islands.
What did it look like?
It was a small honeycreeper about 11 cm long with a silvery gray head and upper back, rich red underparts and rump, and black crown, breast, wings, and tail, with a short, stout yellowish bill. Young birds were much plainer and brownish.
Can I see one anywhere today?
Not alive. Only preserved specimens exist, held in museums such as the Bishop Museum in Honolulu. To experience its living relatives, visit native forest sites like Hakalau Forest refuge to see the Iiwi and Apapane.