Dec. 6, 2009 - Birds of Hawaii - Part 2

At the Kilauea National Wildlife Refuge lighthouse on Kauai, there is a nesting colony of Red-footed Boobies. This adult has its feet tucked under its feathers so you can’t see them but they really are bright red. There are several color morphs but the white one is the most common in Hawaii. They are strong fliers and are often found feeding several hundred miles from land. Boobies plunge-dive to catch fish and squid. They can even catch flying fish in the air.

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This is a juvenile Red-footed Booby. They are light brown all over; it takes three years for them to attain adult plumage.

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I saw this I’iwi (pronounced ee-EE-vee) in Hosmer Grove on the island of Maui. It was right at the top of my list of birds that I wanted to see in Hawaii. It’s a beautiful bird with its red plumage, black wings, and peach-colored, curved beak. It’s a native bird and a member of the honeycreeper family. I’iwi is a nectar eater and the curved beak is specially adapted for feeding on the blossoms of the Ohi’a tree. I was especially intrigued by the calls it makes. One is described as sounding like a rusty hinge.

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Pacific Golden-Plovers are fairly common on the islands. They look like a shorebird but are found in short grass areas, especially on lawns. They nest in western Alaska and migrate non-stop to Hawaii, a distance of over 2000 miles! It has been shown that they often come back to the same yard year after year, a remarkable navigational feat. Their feeding pattern is to run a short distance, stop, and quickly stab at the ground to pick up an insect. They are very similar in appearance to the American Golden-Plover and, until 1993, they were considered to be the same species. This photo was taken in Kapiolani Park in Honolulu.

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I had to include this photo to show you the remarkable power of Photoshop to recover a photo from a photographer’s mistake. I had been taking shots of Boobies with my camera in manual mode. I used settings to take into account the very light background of the sky and the ocean. When I was finished, I forgot to take it out of manual mode; not a good idea. The next morning Diana and I drove to Waimea Canyon. As we were driving up to the summit, this Erkel’s Francolin suddenly appeared right next to the road. It was early and still not very light but I quickly stopped, grabbed my camera, and took about a dozen photos before it walked off into the brush. I was really pleased because this was one of the birds I had wanted to see and I had been able to get full frame shots and some great poses. Then I reviewed the pictures on my camera screen and was really disappointed because all I saw was a black screen, like the left side of this picture. The camera was still set for bright sky. Depending on how your monitor displays this, you might just barely see the bird. Fortunately, I decided to keep the photo and try working with it in Photoshop. After adjusting the exposure and brightness, I was amazed that I got a pretty decent shot of this bird after all.

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