Introduction
While contemplating my next move in early 2023, I received the email from my cheap flights subscription service alerting me to some very good fares to Hawaii. Considering I have a daughter living in Hawaii, I jumped on the opportunity.
Now that I am retired, I like to stay at a location more than the customary week or two that was typical during my working years. I discussed this with my daughter. The conclusion was that much more than one week on the Big Island might be more than we could stand. Additionally, she did not want to overextend the hotel/car rental/parking benefit that she could hook us up with courtesy of her employment as a manager for a major hotel chain.
That settled it. We would have to travel to multiple islands.
How fun is it planning such a vacation? We settled on four islands and 26 days.
Oahu – 6 days
Kauai – 6 days
Molokai – 4 days
Big Island – 10 days
Why not Maui? – We had already spent some time there on a previous trip. In retrospect, that was pre-birding. Next time we will visit Maui.
All the accommodations were made before I really thought seriously about birds. Of course, I knew we would see some birds, but it was not the major consideration….yet.
Funny how the mind traverses from one objective to the next without any conscious consideration. Before I knew it, I was researching birds, hotspots, YouTube, and other sources. I was trying to figure it out. The trip quickly went from a typical Hawaiian vacation to a serious birding escape.
Each island became its own research project.
HAWAII FOREST BIRDS
Birding Hawaii cannot be appreciated without a reasonable understanding of the endemic bird species. I will attempt to provide a basic overview of these birds.
The native forest bird species fall into 3 families; however, the group of birds that get the most attention are the honeycreepers. I will discuss these first.
HONEYCREEPERS
The Hawaiian honeycreepers are in the Finch family. The same Finch family that the American Goldfinch belongs to. Generally, there is consensus that these birds evolved from a single species of Asian rosefinch that managed to arrive way before human migration. Think 7 million years ago. Most of the Hawaiian Islands as we know them had not formed yet. For a more in-depth look at the formation of the islands check out the link below.
It is said that the diversity of the honeycreepers is one of the best examples of Adaptive Radiation and that there is good evidence that Convergent Evolution is also at play. What does this mean?
Adaptive Radiation – Two or more groups of birds belonging to one species begin to adapt physically and behaviorally to their local surroundings. One group of individuals favored the nectar of a particular flower. Others preferred insects that were on certain trees. Through natural selection these two groups from the same original species changed in their appearance and behavior to the extent that they no longer bred with each other. Ultimately, they had enough differences to be considered separate species.
Evolutionary Convergence is a bit more complicated to explain. Lets say that one of the early species of honeycreepers was widespread through the islands but were isolated from each other, meaning they did not travel between islands. Lets also say that the foliage and fauna on each island is similar. It follows that the Adaptive Radiation process would occur on each island similarly such that you would have several species of honeycreepers on each island each having its own niche. Some birds on one island would look and behave very similarly to a bird on another island (creepers, for example). Here is the key, the dissimilar looking honeycreepers on one island are more closely related than the honeycreepers that adapted to the same niche on separate islands and look very similar.
The above link is a great (very technical) article on Honeycreeper evolution.
The diagram below shows how beaks evolved to match a foraging objective. This is an example of Adaptive Radiation.
At the time of Polynesian settlement there were 50 to 60 species of honeycreepers in the Hawaiian Islands. Today there are 22 species remaining according to eBird. Most of them are Globally Threated with many listed as Critically Endangered and possibly extinct. Imagine the sounds of the forest the first time a Polynesian cut through the jungle!
Why the decline? There is much information on this and there are heroic efforts to try to save the most vulnerable of the species. In short, people, in one way or another have unknowingly (for the most part) caused the problem. Starting with some of the early losses. Some of the species had beautiful long yellow feathers that were prized by the early Polynesians as a symbol of wealth and power. They were effectively hunted to extinction.
Perhaps the most devastating factor was the accidental introduction of mosquitoes two hundred years ago followed by the intentional introduction of non-native birds one hundred years ago. Some of the non-native birds were infected with Avian Malaria and the mosquitos were happy to carry the disease from one bird to another. Much like native human populations had no immunity to European diseases, the native birds had no immunity to avian malaria. They began to fall. One species after the other left our world forever.
The mosquitoes are temperature limited and cannot survive above a certain elevation. This saved many of the species, at least for now. The mosquitoes are adapting to higher elevation; however, and on Kauai, Molokai and Oahu there is little elevation left for the birds to retreat.
Other factors affecting the survival of the birds are loss of habitat from human expansion, introduction of non-native plant and animal species which negatively impact populations, removal of the ironwood trees nearly 200 yrs ago and the current decline of the Ohi’a tree due to a virus with no known cure (Rapid Ohi’a Death or ROD). Look it up.
There is much effort to eliminate avian malaria on the islands but no great breakthrough as of this writing. Two of the honeycreepers, the Apapane and the Hawaii Amakihi seem to have developed enough immunity that they are doing well and are listed as Least Concern.
The link below describes the current status of conservation efforts.
OTHER ENDEMIC FOREST BIRD FAMILIES
The Elepaios are island endemic birds of the Monarch Flycatcher family. There is one endemic to Kauai, one endemic to Oahu and the third is found only on the Big Island of Hawaii. All are globally threatened with the Oahu species in the most trouble. The elepaios are fun birds. They are eager to check out hikers as they pass by. They will come in very close to see who is walking through their territory.
The Omao is a member of the thrush family and is endemic to the Big Island of Hawaii. It is globally threatened.
OTHER HAWAII ENDEMICS
The Hawaiian Hawk is endemic to the Big Island. Its conservation status is Near Threatened.
There is an endemic crow known as the Hawaiian Crow which is extinct in the wild since 2002. There is a captive breeding program and wild releases have been attempted on the Big Island without success. Seems like the issue has been predation from the Hawaiian Hawk. The researchers are determining strategies for more successful releases to be effected soon.
Additionally, there are the Hawaiian Goose, the Hawaiian Coot and the Hawaiian Duck. Of these, the Hawaiian Duck is most vulnerable due to hybridization with domestic mallards. Only on Kauai can true Hawaiian Ducks be found.
OTHER HAWAII BIRDS
There is a wide variety of non-native birds in the Hawaiian Islands. Mostly they were intentionally introduced for one reason or another. Most of them are Asian in origin. Most of them are colorful and pleasing to observe.
There are, of course, pelagic birds and other seabirds, shorebirds and migrants. My trip took place from mid-May to mid-June. Most migration activity was completed.
CONCLUSION
It is with this knowledge that I packed my bags, binoculars and target bird list and headed to the airport. Stay tuned for an island-by-island account of my birding activities.