I have spent the last few days shooting photos of birds here on Kauai. Its nice to be able to shoot photos of birds I have never seen before. Keep in mind that most of these birds although pretty are actually introduced species to the Hawaiian Islands, and that over 25% of the native birds on Kauai have become extinct.
I will post more photos to this post as I shoot them.
Lets start with a couple of birds that are natives.
And one in flight.
And a brown booby
The Albatross might be the most awkward bird I have ever seen, they are slow and clumsy.
Then I saw one fly. This bird might be the most graceful bird I have ever seen fly. From the moment this bird took off it never once flapped its wings.
Im not one to disturb nesting birds, but i walked up on this one accidentally. I shot one photo and left.
I am still working on getting a good photo of a great frigate bird, but its not the easiest bird to capture in the lens.
And a non native species. The cattle egret. These are everywhere here.
Female white rumped shama
Male white rumped shama
hwamei, melodious laughingthrush
Red Crested Cardinal.
Ok I have to admit I am having a really hard time finding any native birds in this place. The introduction of many non native species to the Hawaiian islands has decimated many of the natives. The hike i did over the last two days consisted of sightings of Hawaiian wildlife such as the feral cat, feral goat, domesticated chicken, rats and mice. I should admit however, that I am staying in a house in Princeville. Due to a generous friend lodging was free. Unfortunately Princeville is pretty much an environmental catastrophe of a housing development that would be best off washed in to the Pacific Ocean. I was super excited to here that the main resort here went bankrupt which as far as i'm concerned is what goes around comes around. Oh well, I guess I will concentrate on how pretty the non native birds are.
Friday, December 3, 2010 at 9:26AM 
