Bulletin 181 - Kauai seabirds

We had a family vacation in Kauai 2 weeks ago, and I did manage to get some birding in. LOL

A special place is Kilauea Point NWR on the north coast of Kauai. There is a lighthouse on a cliff several hundred feet above the ocean and the seabirds are soaring at eye level. According to the Hawaii bird guide, it is the most visited NWR in the USA. It is listed at the place to find seabirds in Hawaii. They have nice signs around to help non-birders identify the different species.


Kilauea Point NWR

The first bird is the Great Frigatebird (Frigata minor). This long-winged bird has a deeply forked tail. The male is all black with a red throat pouch that he inflates during courtship.



Great Frigatebird - male

The female has a white breast.

Great Frigatebird - female

And the juvenile has a white head, neck and breast. The tail is shorter.  This one is scratching his head 'on the wing'.


Great Frigatebird - juvenile

Tropicbirds are a family of 3 species of gull like seabirds in the tropical oceans of the world. I had never seen a tropicbird previously, so the 2 species seen here were  both lifers. The more common one is the Red-billed Tropicbird (Phaeton rubricauda).  The adults are white with a bright red bill, and red tail streamers.

Red-tailed Tropicbird - adult

The young have black bills and no tail streamers. This is a sub-adult as the bill is mostly red, but it has none of the tail streamers.

Red-tailed Tropicbird - subadult

The White-tailed Tropicbird (Phaeton lepturus) is smaller, has a yellowish bill and long white tail streamers. From above, it has a black 'M' on the wings.

White-tailed Tropic Bird

The Red-footed Booby (Sula sula) is a large (28") seabird with long pointed beak, and pointed tail. The adult is white with brown wing edges. It has a bluish bill and red feet.

Red-footed Booby - adult

The juveniles are brown with orange legs. There is a huge breeding colony of these boobies at the lighthouse, and juvies are seen waiting in the trees to be fed.

Red-footed Booby - juvenile

The Brown Booby (Sula  leucogaster) is also 28" in length. This one was seen along the Naapali coast during a boat trip to see the spectacular cliffs. The adult has a brown head and neck.




Brown Booby - adult

The last of the seabirds I was able to photograph, was the Wedge-tailed Shearwater (Puffinus pacificus). These birds nest in burrows and lay a single egg. The gray downy young can sometimes be seen if they come out of the burrow. The adults usually feed offshore during the day, and return to feed the babies at dusk. This particular adult was sitting on the nest in a planter box outside the visitor center main door! What an easy lifer!




Wedge-tailed Shearwater - adult

Several gray downy chicks were seen, waiting at the mouth of the burrow for their parents return.

Wedge-tailed Shearwater - chick

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2013 David McDonald

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Bulletin 167 - other Maui birds

One of the Hawaiian birds that has been a nemesis bird for me, is the Nene or Hawaiian Goose. The best spot to see the bird is in Haleakala National Park on the summit of the volcano. I had been to Maui previously and missed it on at least 2 occasions. Finally, on my second drive up the mountain I found it just as I was leaving.

The Nene (Branta sandvicensis) is a medium sized brown goose with black head and face and a beige neck with deep dark furrows giving a striped appearance. They are endangered but captive breeding programs have enabled them to be released back into the wild. This population on the volcano in Maui has retreated to the higher elevations (6000-8500') to avoid predation from the introduced mongoose. This bird is banded as can been seen so was probably a released bird. They are often seen along the road, eating the lush green grass along the shoulder of the road. The Nene is the state bird of Hawaii.

Nene

The Hawaiian Duck (Anas wyvilliana) is also known as the Koloa. They look like female Mallards, and are usually are found in pairs. I found this pair at the Kaelia Ponds. It was a lifer for me.

Hawaiian Duck

An unusual find at the Kaelia Ponds was a pair of White-faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi). This wader from the USA and western Mexico must have been blown over in a storm. I was lucky to see such an unusual bird in Maui. Of course it is a local bird here in the Houston area.

White-faced Ibis - Kaelia Ponds Maui

As oceanic islands, Hawaii has a number of seabirds. Surprisingly, there are no gulls except an occasional North American gull that arrives in a storm. However, they do have a number of oceanic seabirds and many species nest in the chain of islands. I found a number of these birds on offshore rocks along the coast on the famous 'road to Hana'. All 3 were lifers for me.

The first was the Black Noddy (Anous minutus). The local name is Noio. Noddies are closely related to terns. This charcoal bird has a white top of head. The race on the main islands has orange legs, while the others have black legs. This species occurs rarely in the Florida Keys in the ABA area.

Black Noddy

The local race of frigatebirds is the Great Frigatebird (Fregata minor). The local name is Iwa. These long-winged slender black birds harass other seabirds to release their catch, which the frigatebird then swoops down and seizes. They are black with the male having a red throat patch. Females have white breasts and the immatures have white heads and breasts. They also have deeply forked tails. Here is a female.

Great Frigatebird - female

The last seabird I managed to photograph was a Red-footed Booby (Sula sula). This is a juvenile with some brown streaking on the body.

Red-footed Booby - immature

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gail.com

photos copyright 2012 David McDonald

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask to subscribe.