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Hawaii’s honeyeater birds tricked taxonomists

DNA from old museum specimens reveals evolutionary look-alikes 

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

Five species of Hawaiian birds have made fools of taxonomists for more than 200 years, thanks to a fine bit of evolutionary illusion-making.

FAMILY FAKE-OUT Two Hawaiian, nectar-feeding birds, the kioea (brown-streaked, in middle) and an o‘o species (lower left), looked so much like nectar specialists from the western Pacific (two species on right) that taxonomists put them all in the same honeyeater family.