The Laysan honeycreeper (Himatione fraithii), also known as the Laysan ʻapapane or Laysan honeyeater, is an extinct species of finch that was endemic to the island of Laysan in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The bird was first recorded in 1828, and in 1892 it received its scientific name from Walter Rothschild, who placed it in the genus Himatione along with the ʻapapane. The specific name, fraithii, refers to George D. Freeth, the self-appointed governor of Laysan, but was misspelled. Rothschild attempted to emend it to freethi in a later publication. This was accepted by most subsequent authors throughout the 20th century, and the bird was also considered a subspecies of the ʻapapane, as H. sanguinea freethii, for most of this time. By the 21st century, after further research, the original name was reinstated and it was considered a full species again. As a Hawaiian honeycreeper, a grouping within the finch subfamily Carduelinae, its ancestors are thought to have come from Asia. The Laysan honeycreeper was 13–15 cm (5–6 in) long and its wing measured 64–69 mm (2.5–2.7 in). It was bright scarlet vermilion with a faint tint of golden orange on the head, breast and upper abdomen; the rest of its upper parts were orange scarlet. The lower abdomen was dusky gray that faded into brownish white, and the undertail covert feathers were grayish. The wings, tail, bill, and legs were dark brown, and the iris was black with a brown outline. Immature birds were brown with paler lower parts, and had green edges to their wing-covert feathers. The bill was slender and downturned. The sexes were alike, though the bill, wings, and tail were slightly shorter in the female. The ʻapapane differs from the Laysan honeycreeper in features such as being blood-red overall and having a longer bill. The song of the Laysan honeycreeper was described as low and sweet, consisting of several notes. Laysan is a remote coral island with an area of 3.6 km2 (1.4 sq mi). The honeycreeper lived throughout, but was most abundant in the interior among tall grass and low bushes near the open plain that bordered the island's lagoon. This bird was very active and, though less trusting than other birds, sometimes entered buildings to hunt moths and to roost at night. It was nectarivorous and insectivorous and, unlike the ʻapapane, also foraged on the ground. It gathered nectar and insects from flowers, such as caterpillars and moths called millers, only eating the soft parts of the latter. The nest was made of fine grass and rootlets with some dry grass. The breeding season was probably between January and June, and the clutch size was four or five eggs. The eggs were glossless white, with blotches and spots at the larger end. A typical egg measured 18 by 13.7 mm (0.71 by 0.54 in). The bird did not seem to be abundant when discovered and was considered the rarest of the island's birds. In 1903, domestic rabbits were introduced to the island and proceeded to destroy its vegetation. By the visit of the Tanager Expedition in 1923, Laysan had become barren and desert-like, and only three Laysan honeycreepers were found, one of which was filmed. A few days later, on April 23, a sandstorm hit the island, and the last birds perished due to lack of cover. The destruction of Laysan's vegetation led to the extinction of three out of five of its endemic land birds.
Taxonomy The Laysan honeycreeper was first recorded on Laysan Island on April 3, 1828, by C. Isenbeck, surgeon of the Russian ship Moller, which was visiting the Hawaiian Islands (then called the Sandwich Islands, and the expedition called Laysan "Moller"). His report was published in an 1834 article by the German naturalist Heinrich von Kittlitz. Isenbeck referred to a "red bird" and a "humming bird" ("Colibri" in German), in both cases probably referring to the honeycreeper, the latter due to it feeding on nectar. In 1892, the British zoologist and banker Walter Rothschild described and named seven new bird species from Hawaii, based on specimens—including a series of ten honeycreeper specimens from Laysan—obtained by the New Zealand collectors Henry C. Palmer and George C. Munro in 1891. These and other collectors had been sent to the Hawaiian Islands in 1890–93 to collect specimens for Rothschild's Natural History Museum at Tring in England. Rothschild named the honeycreeper Himatione fraithii (the type specimen was an adult male) and classified it as a member of Drepanidae, commonly called the Hawaiian honeycreepers, which was recognized as a family at the time. He found it to resemble the ʻapapane (H. sanguinea), also of the genus Himatione, which is found across the main Hawaii archipelago, differing in several details. The generic name is derived from the Greek word himation, a crimson cape worn by the Spartans to war, in reference to the color of the ʻapapane.
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