Chloridops regiskongi

Description:

King Kong GrosbeakEndemic to the Hawaiian Islands (Oahu, extinct)This was the largest of the finch-like Hawaiian finches with a huge bill to crush seeds.One of dozens of original paintings by Julian P. Hume housed at the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C.).On a visit to the Smithsonian in October 2003, Helen James & Storrs Olson showed us several wonderful paintings of an artist depiction of extinct Hawaiian subfossil avifauna. The truth is, however, that no one alive really knows what they actually looked like. But, Julian does a great job of bringing the bones to life with his world class paintings!Helen & Storrs allowed me to take photographs with the condition that they not be shown publicly until published. The photos were finally published in "Extinct Birds of Hawaii" (2016) by Michael Walther and generously illustrated by Julian P. Hume.It adds that "in a newspaper article, Olson was once quoted as saying that this species was 'giant, gargantuan, a king Kong finch' (Benson, 1977), an appellation that would never have occurred to him, this being a typical example of the liberties taken with qutation marks by the printed media. Nevertheless, because of its ridiculousness, the name naturally stuck and we found ourselves referring jocularly to this species as the 'King Kong finch' ever afterwards.'"Helen workingwww.flickr.com/photos/dweickhoff/30645181485/in/photostream/Helen & Storrswww.flickr.com/photos/dweickhoff/30012540014/in/photostream/