Maui's New Birds

A trip to Hawaii is a joy to the senses.  The sights, sounds and smells are some of the most beautiful and exotic in the world.  The rugged and verdant landscapes, nurtured by gentle, tropical trade winds and rains, have been home to native Hawaiian people for over fifteen hundred years.  But it didn't take long for these early Polynesian settlers to begin altering the ancient Eden they discovered.  In fact, they may have been responsible for the extinction of more than half of the island chain's native birds, especially the flightless varieties.  Starting with the arrival of  Captain Cook and the first Europeans in the 1700's, many new animals and practices were introduced that led to the rapid demise of even more of the original wildlife.

As a result, visiting Hawaii's beautiful beaches and coastlines doesn't guarantee an encounter with pristine native fauna that a trip to Costa Rica or the Canadian woodlands might.   Most surviving endemic birds have been pushed to higher elevation forests where mosquitoes can't survive to spread diseases to susceptible wildlife.

However, on my trip to Maui this time last year, I did encounter a wide range of exotic wild birds in and around the resorts that crowd the sandy beaches.  But these avians are transplants, introduced often accidentally over the past century or so to fill the voids left by the demise of the natives.  Like many of the people that now call Hawaii home, these birds are from every corner of the globe - Michigan, Brazil, Indonesia, Australia, you name it -  creating a colorful menagerie of characters never far from your poolside chair or your sunset luau.

Common myna from India.

Java sparrows from several islands in Indonesia.

Spotted dove from southeast Asia.

Zebra dove from Australia.

Red-crested cardinal from Brazil. 

Cattle egret, originally from Africa.

Northern cardinal from North America.

Chilean flamingo from South America, captive at the Westin Resort.

Black-crowned night heron, finally a native bird to both Hawaii and many places in the world.

Hawaiian geese or nenes, the state bird, both native and endangered. It's also endemic to Hawaii, i.e. it's only found on the islands. This shot is from a visit to the Big Island several years ago.

A wild gold dust day gecko, introduced from Madagascar.  There are no native reptiles or amphibians in Hawaii.

Sea turtle as seen from the beach in Maui.  The reefs are filled with native fish and life.  Stay tuned for a future chapter about them.