The Most Hated Bird in Hawai'i? Tale of Two Invasive Species

What's the most hated bird in Hawai'i? I have no idea. I don't live there and I don't think there's an official designation for such a thing. I don't even know the most hated bird where I live for that matter (Pigeons? Crows?). In any case, the Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis tristis) might be a plausible candidate. Here are some observations from the Bishop Museum:  "generally vilified for its noisy habits, "quarrelsome" and opportunistic nature, disturbance to domestic pigeons, fruit-eating and nest-robbing habits, and the possibility of its adversely affecting native bird populations". Also, a song "about as musical as a cat-fight". And, somewhat mysteriously, "later writers again castigated the myna in Hawaii, pointing out its role in spreading noxious weeds including Lantana, serving as a host for parasites and avian diseases, predating seabird nests, setting buildings afire with lighted cigarettes, and perhaps competing with 'o'os for cavity nest sites". The Myna has even managed to make the list of 100 of the world's worst invasive alien species (the list has only three birds, and two of them are presently in Hawai'i).

I guess success breeds contempt. As an occasional visitor to the islands I don't have anything in particular against the bird, other than knowing of its possible impact on native species, which is debated. They are ubiquitous and loud, but also intelligent and comical. They were introduced to the islands in 1866 in an effort to control an insect pest, the Cutworm Moth. Apparently they did so, but once the pest was under control, they started to eat everything else and spread widely.

I photographed this individual in Liliuokalani Gardens in Hilo, Hawaii on the Big Island. Almost in the same moment I had a rare chance to get some close up photos of what might be the other most vilified invasive species (excepting possibly the rat): the Asian Mongoose. It's obviously not a bird, but its history is entwined with the native birds of Hawai'i. Like the Myna, it was introduced to some of the islands in an effort to control a pest, in this case the rat. The mongoose will eat rats, but it isn't their priority, since the rats are nocturnal and the mongoose is not. They instead went after the eggs and chicks of the native birds. They were quite the biological disaster, and like the myna birds, they are found almost everywhere. They never made it to Kauai, and preventing their introduction is one of the highest priorities of wildlife officials in the state.

But really, aren't they just so cute?

Established and Spreading Fast, the Kalij Pheasant on the Big Island

Once again, in the category of "it seemed like a good idea at the time", someone decided to release a few dozen Himalayan pheasants at the Pu’u Wa’awa’a Ranch on the Big Island of Hawai'i. I'm guessing it was for hunting purposes. They didn't do much for a decade or so, but they reached some kind of population tipping point and began to spread. Their range has expanded across most of the forestlands of the Big Island, and a few have been seen on Maui and Oahu. These are the Kalij Pheasants (Lophura leucomelanos).

 I've seen them most often at the Bird Kipuka (Kipuka Puaulu) in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. They certainly add a splash of color to the forest floor, but their role in spreading disease or disrupting food sources for the native bird species is not clear. They sure are a shock when you are walking along a trail looking up and practically trip over them.

Saffron Finch at the Hawai'i Volcanoes Observatory

I'm continuing our discussion of the invasive birds of Hawai'i. Some have more or less replaced those species that have gone extinct, but others are helping prompt the extinction of the few that are left. It's a mixed bag with no easy answers. What one can say is that many of the invasives are beautiful birds. That makes sense, as many of them were caged pets that were released or escaped into the wild.

That's probably the story with the Saffron Finch (Sicalis flaveola), a member of the Tanager family. They are native to South America, and were popular cage birds. They first appeared on Diamond Head in 1965 and spread throughout Oahu. They appeared on the Big Island about the same time and spread across the lowlands. They've ranged into higher elevations and by 2000 they were noted in the village of Volcano next to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. That's where I saw them on one of my first trips to the islands in 2002. When I was there last month, they were still living in the same trees adjacent to the Hawai'i Volcanoes Observatory. I've previous posted on some I saw last year on the coast north of Kona.

At the end of the day we returned to the observatory in the midst of a rainstorm. It was still in the same set of trees, and was busy preening. They add a real splash of color to the scene, but their effect on the native birds is not well-known. It's probably not too serious, as they are generally a lowland bird, but I could be wrong.

A Northern Cardinal...in Hawai'i? The Very Definition of Non-native Species

So...you're walking down a tree-lined street in St. Louis, Missouri, and you see a flash of red in the branches. It's a Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)! You could have the same experience walking through the desert around Phoenix, Arizona. You see them on sports monograms. It's all normal stuff if you live in such places. That's where the bird occurs naturally.

But what if you are walking through an ancient kipuka (an island of unburnt vegetation within a lava flow) on the Big Island of Hawai'i? Well, that becomes strange. What is a bird of the eastern US hardwood forests and the desert southwest doing on an island more than 2,000 miles from the mainland? In the last few posts I've been exploring some of the non-native bird species of the islands, and how they have upended the original ecosystem. The alterations and changes began more than a thousand years ago, but the rate of change increased exponentially after European colonization of the islands. New bird species were purposely brought to the islands more than 150 years ago, and they brought new diseases that the natives had no resistance to. Bird species continued to be introduced throughout the 1900s, sometimes as cage releases of pets, but sometimes on purpose. The Northern Cardinals arrived about 1928, and they spread quickly to all of the main islands, and many of the minor islands as well.

It's always a shock to see a Northern Cardinal flitting through the rainforest. The bright red color really stands out against the vegetation. I saw this individual in a tree no more than 30 feet or so from the trail I was walking through the kipuka. Kipuka Puaulu is a unique place, an ancient forest of Ohia and Koa trees that managed to miss being overrun by a fairly recent basalt flow from Mauna Loa. I recently told the story of this kipuka and one other, and to me the story is absolutely fascinating; it even includes what may be the rarest plant in the world (at least for the couple of years when none existed).

It's unclear the effect the cardinals might be having on the native birds. They spread farther and higher than some of the other introduced species. In the meantime, they are beautiful birds in a spectacular setting, even if it is far removed from the original home of the species.

'Apapane (at last!) at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park

Several million years ago, a small finch species, either pregnant or part of a small flock, got blown off course and somehow survived a tortuous passage over two thousand miles of ocean to land on the newly emergent Hawaiian Islands. The circumstance seems unlikely, but it only had to happen once. The birds discovered some kind of food that kept them alive, but over time, the populations became isolated as they searched for different food sources. Some were scattered on other islands. Over time they evolved, eventually diverging into four dozen or more species. These so-called Honeycreepers were more diverse than Charles Darwin's celebrated Galapagos finches. Time (and human intervention) was not kind to most of the species, and many went extinct. Today there are only a dozen or so left, and some of them are exceedingly rare (as in less than a dozen birds remaining). The reasons are many, but the biggest cause in recent time has been the spread of avian malaria, caused by introduced species of mosquitos. Today, most of the Honeycreepers survive in high-altitude forests where it is too cold for the mosquitos.


I've only seen a few of the Honeycreepers, perhaps just three species, and I've captured decent shots of none, which explains their absences from these pages so far. I'm on the Big Island this week, however, and I spent the last two days in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. We were exploring the edge of an intriguing pit crater called the Devils Throat when I saw a bird soaring on the far side. It landed for a few moments and I was able to confirm: it was a Honeycreeper called the 'Apanane (Himatione sanguinea). These are the pictures I got, at extreme zoom from about 150-200 meters away.

The bright red plumage of the 'apanane found its way into many robes of royal Hawaiians, but the birds were prolific enough to escape extinction when the islands were colonized. They are considered secure for the time being as long as an "island" of cooler air remains above the 4,000 foot level where mosquitos can't thrive (some of the birds may be developing resistance to malaria as well). Their current population on the islands is estimated to be just over a million individuals. And I finally photographed one of them!

The Devils Throat lava pit. I love my camera; the pictures above were on a bird in the shrubs on the opposite rim several hundred feet away.

Common Waxbills at Kona on the Big Island of Hawai'i

It's a week of ugly and tragic news. I'm not ignoring it, I'm following closely. But I'm also choosing to find some small bit of beauty in the midst of tragedy.  Common Waxbills (Estrilda astrild) are native to Africa south of the Sahara Desert, but they were introduced to the Hawaiian Islands in fairly recent time, the 1970s. They were first noted on Oahu, but showed up in the Kona area on the Big Island only in 2002 or so. They feed mainly on grass seeds.

We saw these Waxbills at Maka'eo Jogging/Walking Path at the Old Airport Park just north of Kona on the Big Island. A small bit of beauty.

Yellow-fronted Canary on the Big Island of Hawai'i

The Hawaiian Islands are host to a great many bird species, but few of those seen by island visitors are native to the islands. When humans reached the islands, they brought animals and bugs that had a devastating effect on the original ecosystem of the islands. Rats, cats, and mongoose preyed on the natives species, but even worse, introduced mosquitoes brought avian malaria to which the native birds had no resistance. So few native birds remained in the coastal cities that well-meaning people released colorful tropical birds in the islands to take up the slack.

The Yellow-fronted Canary (Serinus mozambicus) arrived on the islands in the 1960s. Also called Green Singing-Finches, they've been popular as pets, but originated in Africa in the region south of the Sahara Desert. They do well in arid woodlands, which makes them an ideal match to the Kona Coast where I got these pictures on our recent trip.

The canaries spread and by the early 2000s had reached Humu'ula, the pass between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. I saw one of them while exploring Pu'u Huluhulu, a cinder cone kipuka at the pass on my trip last month (above).

'Io, the Hawaiian Hawk at the Pololu Valley on the Big Island

It was on my very first trip to the Hawaiian Islands that I started paying attention to birds, in large part because of the presence of a Hawaiian Hawk, or 'Io, at the Hilo Zoo. It immediately raised questions, mainly, how in the world did a hawk get to Hawai'i? They aren't shorebirds, and they can't swim, so at least once, a small group (or a pregnant female) got knocked off course, and kept soaring until they were lucky enough to sight land. Ever since the day I saw the Hawaiian Hawk (Buteo solitarius) at the zoo in 2002, I've wanted to see one in the wild. It took a long time.

I was with my students a few weeks ago at the Pololu Valley trailhead at the north end of the Big Island when I heard an unearthly screeching from right over my head in a coconut tree. I looked up and saw what I momentarily assumed was a pigeon, but in a split second I realized it was too big. I was trying to recall what kind of large bird would be perched in a coconut tree when it struck me: Hawk! I was immediately struggling to bring my camera around, but a pair of Common Myna Birds didn't want the hawk around. They chased it away before I snapped more than a pair of pictures. I got one of the hawk soaring above.

Although fossils of the hawk are known from Kaua'i, Moloka'i, and Oahu, they only live today on the Big Island, where they feed on insects, birds, and introduced rats. They are on the endangered species list, but their population seems to be stable at around 3,000 for the last 20 years. 

Hawaiian Hawk in the Hilo Zoo (2002)

Saffron Finch on the Big Island of Hawai'i

We are going outside of California for awhile, since I was overseas on the Hawaiian Islands, and to say that there are lots of birds there is an understatement. There are lots, and only a few are at all familiar to Californians. There are both native birds and introduced (even invasive) species, and the introduced birds are the most visible. You really have to work at seeing the natives, as they have been driven into the high elevation forests for reasons to be discussed later.

In the meantime, the introduced species provide a splash of color to the exploration of the islands, and one of the most striking birds one can encounter is the Saffron Finch (Sicalis flaveola). It is a tanager that is native to the Amazon Basin in South America (it certainly bears some resemblance to the Western Tanager back home in California). 

The Saffron Finches are popular cage birds, and that is the probable explanation for their existence in the Hawaiian Islands. They were first noted in the 1960s and were most likely escapees. They are common on the Big Island, and increasing in Oahu as well.

I encountered several of the finches at our first hotel on the day of our arrival, but it wasn't until several days later that we were exploring Lapakahi State Park on the northern coast that we saw one up close. Lapakahi preserves an ancient fishing village. We spied the finch "hiding" in a tree above a burial site ("hiding" is a strong term for such a colorful bird).

Later on we stopped in Kapa'au on the northern tip of the Big Island, and had another finch land nearby the group. I like the color contrast with the red paint on the roof.

Expect a lot more colorful birds in coming weeks. There were a lot of them out there!