The brilliant yellow feathers of o'o honey-eaters were used for the robes of Hawaiian nobility. To make just one cloak, thousands of birds would be captured alive and plucked. It is said that they were released after their feathers were taken. Despite this treatment, honeyeaters were not driven to extinction until European agricultural methods were introduced to the islands and large-scale deforestation destroyed their habitats. The impact of human activities on natural environments is evident all around us, but it is most obvious on islands.
Islands are, in effect, closed systems.
If your habitat is destroyed, there are no other habitats available. This is precisely what has happened on many Pacific islands. The Kauai akialoa is a striking bird with a long curved bill. Colex mosquito infects an akailoa honeycreeper with malaria. It's a honeycreeper, one of a group of birds named for their habit of foraging by shuffling slowly along the ground or a tree branch, methodically looking for insects or nectar.