Nov. 22, 2009 - Birds of Hawaii - Part 1

Our first four days in Hawaii were spent on the island of Oahu. We stayed in a hotel on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu and I spent a lot of time at Kapiolani Park where all of today’s pictures were taken. It was a huge park just a block from our hotel. It gave me a chance to become acquainted with many of the common Hawaiian birds. All of the birds in this group are introduced species. They were interesting and exotic to me because I hadn’t seen them before. However, I do realize that introduced species have been very hard on the native birds of Hawaii and some introduced birds have become serious pests.

The Red-crested Cardinal was brought to Oahu from South America around 1930. It is now found on several of the other islands as well.

CardinalRedcrestedKapiolaniParkWaikikiOahuHI0120091017PS1web

The Yellow-fronted Canary is a native of Africa. It likes open, dry parkland and woods. It was introduced to the Hawaiian Islands in the late 1960s.

CanaryYellowfrontedKapiolaniParkWaikikiOahuHI0120091015PS1web

The Common Myna is found on all the main islands of Hawaii. It was introduced from India in 1865 to control insect pests. The Myna is related to the European Starling. Mynas have been introduced in many parts of the world and have become real pests in some of those places. In the year 2000 they were included on a list of the world’s 100 worst invasive species. They were one of only three bird species on this list; the rest were mammals, insects, etc.

MynaKapiolaniParkWaikikiOahuHI0120091015PS1web

The Common Waxbill is a small, canary-size bird. It’s not certain when this native of Africa was introduced to the islands but it was first identified in the late 1970s.

WaxbillCommonKapiolaniParkWaikikiOahuHI0120091015PS1web

Mainland birders are familiar with the Cattle Egret. In 1959, Cattle Egrets were introduced from Florida to control insect pests. We saw flocks of them following the mowing machines along the highway and catching the insects stirred up by the mowing.

EgretCattlecloseKapiolaniParkWaikikiOahuHI20091017PS1web

This handsome bird is a Red-vented Bulbul. They first appeared on Oahu in the mid 1950s. It is believed that they were cage birds released into the wild. They do like fruit and the buds of fruit trees. This food preference has made them a serious agricultural pest.

BulbulRedventedKapiolaniParkWaikikiOahuHI0120091015PS1web