Bulletin #157 - other Big Island birds and animals

There were some other birds introduced into the Hawaiin islands as well. Many of these were game birds to stock the ranches for hunting, as there were no native game birds.
One of the non-game birds is the familiar Cattle Egret. There are 4 species of introduced pigeons and doves. Two are the familiar Rock Pigeon and our own Mourning Dove. However, the Spotted Dove (Spilopelia chinensis) of Chinese origin, is a large brown dove with a patch of white and black spots on the back of the neck. This bird also occurs in the Los Angeles area as a result of escapes or releases.

Spotted Dove

The Zebra Dove (Geopelia striata) is smaller, about the size of an Inca Dove. It was brought from southeast Asia. It is similar to an Inca Dove, but has fine black and white stripes on the breast and flanks. The sexes are similar.

Zebra Dove
Photo by Lisa Kelly-McDonald

The Gray Francolin (Francolinus pondicerianus) is a brown game bird in the partirdge family. It is native to the Indian subcontinent. It occurs at lower elevations than the next bird. This one was photographed on the grounds of our hotel.

Gray Francolin

The Erckel's Francolin (Francolinus erckelii) is a grayer colored cousin to the bird above. He has a bright rufous crown. It occurrs at higher elevation on the mountain sides. It is native to Ethiopia.

Erckel's Francolin

The popular game bird, the Ring-necked Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) was also introduced to Hawaii. The male is gray and brown with a very long tail, red on the face, and green head.

Ring-necked Pheasant - male

The female is a brown bird with a long tail.

Ring-necked Pheasant - female

Lastly, the Thanksgiving bird was also introduced. A family of Wild Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) inhabited the grounds of the hotel and paraded around. Here is the male (tom) displaying.

Wild Turkey - male displaying
Photo by Lisa Kelly-McDonald

As far as land mammals go, Hawaii had only 1 native, a bat. Many of course were introduced. Here is the Indian Mongoose (Herpestes javanicus). As in all the other introductions of this species to control some other animal or reptile, it didn't work. They were brought to Hawaii to control rats in the sugar cane fields. However, the rodents are nocturnal and the mongoose in diurnal, thus their paths didn't cross and the mongoose ate bird eggs and other things rather than the intended prey. We saw several of these in broad daylight on the hotel grounds.

Indian Mongoose
Photo by Lisa Kelly-McDonald

Here is a close up of another animal. Notice the cute pink nose, but the horizontal slit pupils in the eyes I thought were most unusual.

Indian Mongoose - detail

Our hotel had flood lights at night along a section of shoreline. These lights attracted plankton and the plankton attracted Manta Rays (Manta birostris). I saw 5-6 of these 5 foot rays at one time.

Manta Ray

Here is a close up of the peculiar wide mouth.

Manta Ray - detail

We always appreciate comments and I'm sure Lisa would like to hear from you as well as her photos are being shown for the first time. We are a great team and it is wonderful to have a partner to bird and do photography with.

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
davidkmcd@ymail.com

Lisa Kelly-McDonald
lisajanekelly67@yahoo.com

photos copyright 2012 David McDonald and Lisa Kelly-McDonald

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