The birds of Maui (and the Hawaiian Islands in general) have taken a beating over time due to the introduction of all sorts of other animal and avian species.
That plus the loss of important vegetation has led to the extinction and very-near extinction of several beautiful species.
According to my Hawaii's Birds book, there were "more than 50 unique species or subspecies" of birds originally. However, "many of the 35 or more bird species known only from the subfossil record became extinct after the islands were settled by Polynesians. Since the arrival of Europeans two centuries ago, another 23 species or subspecies have become extinct and more are in danger of extinction.
Bird watching makes the loss of birds pretty clear.
Still I saw several very neat birds! The first sighting was the "Common Myna." These guys are everywhere! These birds were introduced from India in 1865 to control insects. Given the very few insects, they seem to have excelled at insect eradication. There were so abundant that I had to keep reminding myself that they were NOT Starlings.
The second bird I saw was the House Sparrow. There is likely no place on the earth that these guys don't live! They served excellent clean-up crew on our balcony and were very attentive to us on the beach as well!
The third bird was the Japanese White Eye. Very pretty bird! I didn't get a photo of this bird, so I pulled one off the web for you to see. It should be clear which one is the white-eye! These little warbler-like birds flitted around the palm trees outside our condo. They were also in parks and other locales. These little birds were introduced in O'ahu in 1929 but eventually made it to Maui as well as the island of Hawaii.
Several "Red Junglefowl" were running around. On the mainland, if seen, one would think that someone's pet rooster had escaped. Here, they live in the wild and are really beautiful. And philosophical I think as one begged a question about why he crossed the road. Hardy har har.
A huge treat of a bird that Dave saw and I never managed to was the Nene. This is the state bird of Hawaii and the most rare goose in the world. It is estimated that there are 300 on Maui only. Wow.
As the pictures demonstrate, they evolved from Canada Geese. Pretty birds. The Nene had just gone to nest so they weren't wandering around anywhere making it hard to see them. However, Dave ran across a few on a hike through the Haleakala volcano crater! And he got several nice photos of them. Sweet!
I saw several White-tailed Tropicbirds, House finch, Mockingbird, Great Frigatebirds, lots of Cattle Egret, Many Pacific Golden Plover, Chukar, tons of Zebra Doves and Spotted Doves,Rock Doves (pigeons to most folks), Gray Francolin, Ring-Necked Pheasant, several Amakihi, and I believe a brown-footed booby (though it was hard to be sure).
While Dave hiked the volcano crater, I did a short bird walk in Hosmer Grove camp area. Here I saw a really pretty bird called the I'Iwi. I think this was my favorite bird. I got not photos so again, I've borrowed one from the web. This is a honeycreeper with a long de-curved bill used to get nectar out of flowers. Not only is the bright red/orange bird gorgeous, it has the most beautiful song. The bird book describes it as "complex, variable series of squeaks, creaks, whistles, and gurgling sounds." That doesn't make it sound pretty, but it's really melodious.
A bird I was excited to see was the Crested Cardinal. He did not disappoint! Dave saw some first and brought me photos - beautiful! Happily we ended up seeing several more during the trip. I could never tell if their call was like that of a Northern Cardinal since I didn't see one sing. Given the book's description of the call though, I think it isn't. Speaking of cardinals, there were a fair number of Northern Cardinals around too. Can't see to many of those (especially now that I'm living out west, seeing a Cardinal is a big treat!)
And finally, we saw many Java Sparrows. Dave called them miniature Puffins and he is right! They are the cutest little birds! I hoped that we could get a photo of some but they are pretty skiddish. Hence, the Java Sparrow photo here is also lifted from the web.
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1 comment:
Great pictures.
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