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Apapane, perhaps the most successful of the extant honeycreepers, and a fine sight in its favored flowers. (Photo by participant Tony Quezon)

Hawaii. The 50th state. It's rather an unusual place: it's perhaps the Earth's most isolated archipelago, it is the US's only truly tropical state, and it has by far the most unique fauna and flora in the country!

The islands were once home to some impressive and unique birds (flightless giant geese, a flightless ibis that walked on all fours, a forest harrier, a long-legged owl, an endemic family [the O'o's] and 40+ species of honeycreepers!). These native birds colonized the islands from several sources: the honeycreepers probably were derived from an Asian rosefinch, the O'o's probably from ancient waxwings or their relatives (from North America?), the Elepaios were monarch flycatchers that invaded from the South Pacific, the Nene from Cackling Geese from Alaska, the Hawaiian thrushes from an ancestor of Townsend's Solitaire or a relative from western North America or Mexico, the Hawaiian Hawk from Short-tailed Hawks from Mexico, etc. These colonization events happened over perhaps as much as 10 million years. Sadly, much of this is lost, including many of the most remarkable (and all the flightless species) before Europeans arrived, but much more was lost after. Still, there are still some pretty impressive native land birds still to be seen on the islands, as well as seabirds, and a few interesting introduced species.

Interestingly, the colonization of new bird species to the islands through human interference has added a similar number of species in about a century as had arrived over the previous several million years, and from sources more widely scattered around the globe (Skylarks from Europe, mynahs and bulbuls from India, doves and white-eyes from China and Japan, Northern Cardinals, mockingbirds, Western Meadowlarks, and several gamebirds from North America, Saffron Finches, Red-crested and Yellow-billed cardinals from South America, and francolins and Yellow-fronted Canaries from Africa, just for starters!). Sure, these may seem like uninteresting birds to us now since they are not native, but imagine what they may become after a million years of isolation on these islands!

Our tour took us to three of the main islands: Oahu, Kauai, and Hawaii (also called the "Big Island" to avoid confusion with the name now given to the chain). We enjoyed seeing the varying ages of these islands from the old, red soils, impressive canyons, and steep sea cliffs of Kauai, the Garden Isle, to the center of civilization and wind-swept North Shore of Oahu, and finally the young lava flows and high mountains--still with snow--that are home to the last refuge of native forest birds on the Big Island.

Our most memorable sightings included the suburban families of Laysan Albatrosses (albatrice?), the brilliantly colored I'Iwi with their off-key songs and bent bills, the finch-like Palila that Chris first heard out his window as we drove through Mamane woodland, the friendly Elepaios we enjoyed on all three islands, the Short-eared Owl (or Pueo, its local name) that played with its food on the fence post and then entertained us with some head-bobbing, the flight displays of courting Red-tailed Tropicbirds and White Terns, the rare and endemic Newell's Shearwaters we enjoyed among the throngs of Wedge-tailed on our boat trip, the melancholy beauty of the honeycreepers that we did enjoy, including the Hawaiian Creeper on the nest, the Hawaiian Hawk that came in to land over us at Hakalau, the Black Noddies that danced over the waves along the youngest terrain in the US at the bottom of Chain-of-Craters Road, and a spy-hopping pod of Short-finned Pilot Whales that seemed unconcerned with our proximity. Even the introduced Black Francolin and Red-crested Cardinals were among the sights that we most appreciated on the tour!

Chris and I were very pleased that you decided to join us as we explored these special islands, and we hope we'll enjoy your company again soon! Mahalo and aloha!

--Dan

KEYS FOR THIS LIST
One of the following keys may be shown in brackets for individual species as appropriate: * = heard only, I = introduced, E = endemic, N = nesting, a = austral migrant, b = boreal migrant

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

Totals for the tour: 87 bird taxa and 9 mammal taxa