On my recent trip to Kaua’i, I spotted more birds than several of my visits to Maui. This could be due to the large number of roaming Red Junglefowl, or that once I started looking, I couldn’t stop. Of all the birds I did notice, it seems a majority were brought here over the past hundreds of years- likely as pets and stowaways. Unfortunately, I didn’t get great pictures of all the ones I liked and I never saw a Brown Booby nor a Pueo (I wonder if they get hungover on Kaua’i).
a pair of Nene
A Red-Crested Cardinal. He’s trying to help me out and still I can’t seem to focus quite fast enough. Lucky for me, I found a man with a net who picked a few fresh mangos from the tree. No eating off the ground for this chick.
Gonna guess Finch or Papya Bird. Came to Hawaii in the 1800’s, likely as escaped pets. Saw a few of these near Lihue and on my drive to Waimea Canyon.
A cattle egret chillaxing near the remains of the Russian Fort Elisabeth.
Nene Xing. Nene spotted in a refuge originally set aside to protect the Koloa Maoli (Hawaiian Duck). [fisheye lensbaby
Love Birds. The Nene is monomorphic- with male & female being nearly identical with the exception that the male is somewhat larger.
Walk Like an Egyptian. The Nene was aggressively hunted in the 1800s but is now increasing in numbers thanks to captive propagation. Check out the bracelet.
Red Junglefowl. aka: roosters. and apparently Hawaii’s first introduced species, being brought over by the Polynesians over 700 yrs ago.
In my searching to find out some of these birds & their histories, I stumbled across 2 fabulous resources- enjoy.
- A local’s page of Hawaiian Birds
- Kaua’i Birds
