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 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.