Comparing Akialoa Prints

Beneath the horizontal line are the following:

Akialoa in Naupaka, a Marian Berger lithograph from 1985
Akialoa in Purple Kauai Lobelia, a Marian Berger Giclee from 2010
Greater Akialoa by Frederick Frohawk
Lesser Akialoa by Frederick Frohawk
Greater Akialoa from a print of an original in the Hawaiian Legacy Archive

Now I did not even know there was a greater and a lesser Akialoa until I saw Frohawk's Birds of Hawaii. Judging by bill length, it would appear that Marian Berger is painting the Greater Akialoa.

Now for the color differences: Berger clearly shows a brighter, more yellow Akialoa than Frohawk, and a somewhat more colorful and greener bird than that in the print from the Hawaiian Legacy Archive. A search of the internet provided only images of stuffed specimens, no color photo of a live bird. Based on several of these, it appears the colors Marian Berger used are most accurate.

The Akialoa is now thought extinct. For a while there was thought to be an additional species or sub-species which was called the Greater Akialoa, but it was later thought that there was just the one species, Akialoa.

What a beautiful bird; I would love to have seen one in the wild.

Akialoa - Fringillidae Hemignathus obscurus Greater Akialoa - Fringillidae Hemignathus obscurus Lesser Akialoa - Fringillidae Hemignathus obscurus