Bulletin 183 Kauai #3

The water birds of Kauai can be readily seen in the taro fields just beyond Princeville on the north coast in the Hanalei NWR.

The Koloa or Hawaiian Duck (Anas wyvilliana) survives as a natural population only on Kauai. It has been reintroduced to Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii. It resembles a female mallard and the sexes are similar.

Hawaiian Duck

The Hawaiian Coot (Fulica alai) was split from the American Coot in the last 20 years. It has a white shield on the forehead vs the American which has a red shield. However, a small percentage of the local birds do have a red shield. Here is the typical form.

Hawaiian Coot with white shield

I also noticed one with a red shield. The red shield appears to be larger then the red shield of the American species.

Hawaiian Coot with red shield

The endangered local subspecies of the Common Moorhen is also known locally as Hawaiian Gallinule (Gallinula chloropus). As both the Hawaiian subspecies of the stilt and coot were eventually elevated to full species status, maybe this one will be too. This was my first sighting of this subspecies.

Hawaiian Gallinule

We found a dragonfly while birding with our guide in the Alakai Swamp. He mentioned that it is the largest dragonfly in the world. It is called the Giant Hawaiian Dragonfly (Anax strenuus). It has a wingspan of 7.5".

Giant Hawaiian Dragonfly

Another interesting species of nature that we came across was a lobelia plant with a very curved flower. This lobelia served as a nectar source for the Iiwi bird with the semi circular bill. When we birded on the big island of Hawaii in June, our guide there pointed out several species of lobelia that were critically endangered with only a few individual plants known in the wild. It turns out that all the lobelias of Hawaii all descended from a single species. There are 126 species known in 6 genuses. These comprise 1/8 of all the native plant species of Hawaii. For more information on the amazing Hawaiian lobelias, read this blog where I got this information.

The flower can be seen in the upper central part of the photo.

Lobelia

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald dkmmdpa@gnail.com

photos copyright 2013 David McDonald

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Bulletin 165 - Maui#1 marsh and shorebirds

Lisa and I spent last week on Maui supposedly attending a wedding. However, the wedding was cancelled, so we had the honeymoon in Hawaii!

There are a number of familiar North American breeding shorebirds, that winter on Maui, so it was fun to see them again. Maui has 2 wetland areas, both of which are wildlife refuges. The commonly occurring birds have local Hawaiian names but some of the rarer birds do not.

The Hawaiian Coot (Fulica alae) is known locally as 'Alae Ke'oke'o. It was recently split as a separate species from the American Coot. It looks identical. It is an endangered species. I had seen the coot on an earlier trip to Maui before the split, so it was not a lifer.

Hawaiian Coot

The local subspecies of Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus) is also endangered. Locally it is known as the Ae'o. The population was estimated at 1300 birds in the islands a decade ago. Like the coot above, this might be a potential split in the future.



Black-necked Stilt

The familiar Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) is known locally as 'Auku'u.

Black-crowned Night-Heron

The most common shorebird is the Pacific Golden-Plover (Pluvialis fulva). The local name is Kolea. As well as in the wet lands, this bird is found on lawns, golf courses etc all over the islands. In North America, however, it is found only in western Alaska while breeding, and occasionally as a vagrant along the west coast. Here are a couple of photos of the plover. Some golden feathers can still be seen on the back.

Pacific Golden-Plover

Pacific Golden-Plover

The next 4 birds were all firsts for me in Hawaii. The Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) is known as the 'Akekeke. It was fairly common in the pond areas and is IDed by the bright orange legs.

Ruddy Turnstone

Some Sanderlings (Calidris alba) also winter in Hawaii, where they are known as Hunakai.

Sanderling

The last of the common wintering shorebirds I found was the Wandering Tattler (Heteroscelus incanus). Its local name is 'Ulili. This 11" shorebirebird is all gray with a white belly and yellow legs. It is found on the west coast of North America, but seldom in the east. I have only seen it a few times in the past.



Wandering Tattler

The last shorebird is uncommon in Hawaii and does not have a local name. It isn't even illustrated in the Audubon Hawaiian Birds guide. A local survey of birds on Maui had been done a couple of weeks before and found just one of this species, so it was a stroke of luck to see it on a large mud flat among hundreds of other birds. This is the Semi-plamated Plover (Charadrius semipalmatus). This bird summers in Alaska and mostly winter in the Americas, but a few must head over the ocean to Hawaii.



Semi-palmated Plover - Maui

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.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.