Entries in Kauai (2)

Friday
Dec032010

More Hawaiian Birds on Kauai

 Yesterday I finally found the place to see some native Hawaiian birds.  The taro fields here in Hanalei are filled with marsh birds and of course plenty of the introduced species, but the five minutes that is was not dumping rain did make for some good photo time.

Red crested cardinal

Black capped night heron

Alae 'Ula (Hawaiian Gallinule)

Hawaiian Stilt

Pacific Golden Plover

wedge tailed shearwater

Erckel's Francolin
Wandering Tattler

Tuesday
Nov302010

Some Birds of Kauai.

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.