King Kong grosbeak

King Kong grosbeak
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Fringillidae
Subfamily: Carduelinae
Tribe: Psittirostrini
Genus: Chloridops
Species: C. regiskongi
Binomial name
Chloridops regiskongi
James & Olson, 1991

The King Kong grosbeak or giant grosbeak (Chloridops regiskongi) is a prehistoric species of Hawaiian honeycreeper, that was endemic to Hawaiʻi. It had the largest beak of the three Chloridops species known to have existed. The King Kong grosbeak was described from fossils found at Barber's Point and Ulupau Head on the island of Oʻahu.[1] It was 11 inches (28 cm) long, making it one of the largest Hawaiian honeycreepers. It was probably just a larger form of the Kona grosbeak.

The unusual name given to the species came from a reporter’s misquoting of ornithologist Storrs L. Olson’s discovery of the then-unnamed species as being "a giant, gargantuan, King Kong finch."[2]

References

  1. James, Helen F.; Olson, Storrs L (1991). "Descriptions of Thirty-Two New Species of Birds from the Hawaiian Islands: Part II. Passeriformes". Ornithological Monographs (American Ornithologists' Union) 46: 39–43. doi:10.2307/40166713.
  2. Harold Douglas Pratt (2005). The Hawaiian Honeycreepers. Oxford University press. p. 212. ISBN 0-19-854653-X.
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