New Birds on the Big Island

The first thing travelers notice after landing at the airport in Kona on the Big Island is probably the endless expanse of hardened lava. They might next ponder its source, the massive volcanoes rising to the east. Outside the terminal, waiting for their rental car shuttle, they will certainly also be struck by the squawking cacophony of myna birds.

Common mynas were introduced to the Hawaiian Islands from India in the nineteenth century. Almost two hundred years later they are more numerous than any other avian species in the Aloha State, occupying diverse habitats along the coast. Rapidly changed with the arrival of the first humans, these areas are no longer hospitable to endemic bird species that evolved over millennia and, in many cases, became extinct.

As a result, the seaside resorts where visitors stay are mostly inhabited by non-native species, like the myna, that thrive far from their original habitats. Nonetheless at water's edge you will probably encounter black-crowned night herons and Pacific golden plovers, birds that have been part of the island landscape for thousands of years before the first Polynesians settled. They would have certainly cohabitated with native honeycreepers, a family of bird species pushed into higher mountain environments to survive the introduction of mosquito-borne diseases that arrived with Europeans.

Along garden paths or in parking lots, my eyes regularly peered at the fauna in the trees and on the ground, tracking a flash of yellow or locating a unique tweet. Discovering a new bird, like I did several times on my recent trip to the Big Island, is always a thrill.

The first morning at the Hilton Waikoloa Village on the Kohala Coast, I heard amidst the clatter of mynas the "tinks" of northern cardinals. These popular North American birds thrive on all the islands. Second in number to the mynas, house finches fluttered amidst the myriad hibiscus bushes. They were all familiar birds so it was looking like I'd have to actually leave the resort for any new finds.

Before a boat excursion out of Keauhou Bay in South Kona on the second day of my vacation, I encountered a striking pair of bright-yellow birds atop a parked car. New birds! I'd eventually see more of them back on the grounds of my resort. They were saffron finches, adorable South American natives that are now established on the Big Island.

As the boat left the bay, an inquisitive, copper-headed bird alighted on the aft railing. Apparently looking for a quick breakfast handout, it flew off disappointed before we sailed very far. Like the saffron finch, I'd find more of this new bird at my resort. The species was an immature yellow-billed cardinal, another South American native settled on the Big Island. On this trip, I never observed its cousin the red-crested cardinal that populates most of the other Hawaiian Islands. Interestingly, these colorful cardinals are actually in the tanager family.

Another new bird at the resort was a type of silverbill, which I initially thought was a house finch. I saw a flock of these plain African transplants on Kauai almost two years ago, but I didn't get a good photograph of one until I was on the Big Island.

There were undoubtedly more new birds to discover on the Big Island. Among introduced doves like the mourning and zebra varieties, and along with cattle egrets and francolins, were certainly other immigrant species established in colonies near coffee farms or neighborhood parks. Away from the coastal resorts, in the rain forests of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and in the nearby kipukas, I discovered Kalij pheasants roaming under the canopy of trees.

A memory take me back to visiting my hometown's pet shop as a child, where yellow, green, and blue parakeets huddled in pairs behind the metal slats of cages. Far from their native lands in Australia, the birds were for sale under the hum of fluorescent lights in suburban New Jersey. They were all destined for lives near a kitchen's sunniest window. I was mesmerized watching these exotic creatures in the store on Main Street; even more so today in the wild in Hawaii.