biology

Greater ʻamakihi

Greater ʻamakihi is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Greater ʻamakihi rather than just read about it. In short: The greater ʻamakihi (Viridonia sagittirostris) is an extinct species of Hawaiian honeycreeper in the subfamily Carduelinae of the family Fringillidae. It was endemic to the Island of Hawaii.

Key takeaways

Greater ʻamakihi belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Greater ʻamakihi to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Greater ʻamakihi from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The greater ʻamakihi (Viridonia sagittirostris) is an extinct species of Hawaiian honeycreeper in the subfamily Carduelinae of the family Fringillidae. It was endemic to the Island of Hawaii. The species was last recorded in 1901.

Description

The greater ʻamakihi, also known as the green solitaire while it was extant, was the largest recent ʻamakihi. It was a brownish winged bird with a yellow body ending with a notched tail, and a whitish pointed beak. It was six inches long and it had blackish brown legs. (At least one naturalist of the era, however, noted, "The beautiful blue of the legs is retained in the skin for only a few days and then fades almost to black.") The major difference between it and its relative was that its bill was white and the fact that the bird was six inches in comparison to the four-inch Hawaiʻi ʻamakihi.

Ecology It lived in a small tract of forest where it crept through the vines and trees for insects as part of its diet. It was not discovered until the last quarter of the 19th century by Henry Palmer, who collected in the islands between 1890 and 1893, and it was apparently unknown to natives. It was thought to have been seen sipping nectar from o'hia trees. It was thought to have gone extinct when the only population was killed when the land they lived on was turned into a sugarcane plantation. After the land around Hilo was cleared in 1901, the bird was never spotted again. Somewhat ironically, large-scale plantations like the one established on the greater ʻamakihi's territory were eventually abandoned. The species appears not to have been widespread, and was rarely found.

See also Hawaiian honeycreepers Extinct birds of Hawaii

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Greater ʻamakihi

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Greater ʻamakihi claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Greater ʻamakihi before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Greater ʻamakihi ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Greater ʻamakihi

In research: Greater ʻamakihi appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Greater ʻamakihi in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Greater ʻamakihi is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Biota of Hawaii (island), Bird extinctions since 1500, Birds described in 1892, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Greater ʻamakihi outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Greater ʻamakihi in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Greater ʻamakihi means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Greater ʻamakihi out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Greater ʻamakihi in simple terms?

The greater ʻamakihi (Viridonia sagittirostris) is an extinct species of Hawaiian honeycreeper in the subfamily Carduelinae of the family Fringillidae. It was endemic to the Island of Hawaii.

Why does Greater ʻamakihi matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Greater ʻamakihi?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Greater ʻamakihi.