Mam(b)o Jam(b)o: Bird Painting by kto ART

For today's painting, I decided to bring the Mamo back to life! The Mamo was an endemic Hawaiian bird that sadly became extinct over 100 years ago. In Hawaii, a lot of the endemic birds have become extinct or are critically endangered due to urban development, habitat destruction and invasive species. 
I was just watching a birder documentary on HBO, and similar to all nature documentaries, there's always a final message about humanity's destruction of nature and the innocent animal victims that we leave in our wake. I don't really want to dwell on that aspect so much, but it is happening every day.

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During the late 1700's, the Hawaiians used the Mamo's golden feathers to create King Kamehameha I's golden cloak that is immortalized in multiple statues across the Hawaiian Island chain. The original statue was made in the 1880's and placed in Kamehameha I's birthplace of North Kohala, Big Island Hawaii, but the most popular cast stands outside Ali'iolani Hale in Honolulu, Oahu. Although it took over 80,000 birds to make this cloak, the Hawaiians practiced catch-and-release on the rarer birds like O'o and Mamo. It was Kapu (basically Hawaiian style taboo) to kill the rare birds and considering that King Kamehameha was devoted to Hawaiian religion and culture, anyone caught killing a Mamo would be

www.hawaiialive.org

put to death.  By the late 1800's, only a few remained, regardless of attempts to conserve the population and by 1899, the Mamo was considered extinct. Unfortunately, the Mamo did not survive but I like to imagine that this Mamo is enjoying a daytime snack of lehua blossom nectar, without a care in the world. He is surrounded by bright colors and fresh foliage. I can see him doing a little mambo dip (in his case, the "b" is silent)  :)