 Its striking plumage was used for "aahu alii" (robes), "ahu ula"(capes), and "Kāhili" (feathered staffs) of "alii" (Hawaiian nobility).The Europeans too saw the striking beauty of this bird and hunted many of them for specimens in personal collections.Some were even caught and put in cages to be sold as song birds only to live for a few days or weeks before diseases from mosquitoes befell them.