| mamo | |
noun | |
| black honeycreepers with yellow feathers around the tail; now extinct |
mamo
(species Drepanis pacifica), Hawaiian songbird of the family Drepanididae (order Passeriformes), which became extinct in about 1898. About 20 cm (8 inches) long, it was black with yellow touches and had a long, decurved bill for nectar-feeding. The native Hawaiian nobility killed mamos for their feathers, but the birds nevertheless remained fairly numerous until the Americans destroyed their mountain-forest habitat.
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