Conservation Success To Boy's Club: The Hawaii Creeper In Danger Of Extinction

The beautifully diverse honeycreepers. Cover art for Current Biology, volume 21, issue 22 Though most people focus on Darwin's famous birds, I would argue that the Hawaiian honeycreepers are the most dazzling example of adaptive radiation, especially by a finch. From a single finch ancestor arose a stunning diversity of honeycreepers, from the brilliant red I'iwi with its long, curved bill to the small, rotund ʻAkikiki. Over 50 species of these colorful forest birds once brightened the islands from Hawaii to Laysan, putting the 14 Galapagos finches to shame. Their tale is not just one of rapid evolution, though; it's one of a brief and fleeting existence on this planet. All but eighteen are extinct, and of those that remain, ten are endangered or critically endangered and five are listed as vulnerable, leaving only three species that seem to be holding their own against the every-growing list of threats to their survival.