Hawaii Part 3: Small Birds on the Big Island

Ah, the Big Island. It's the largest (duh) and geologically youngest of Hawaii's islands, with the tallest mountains, most-active volcanoes, and largest remaining natural areas. It's also the home of Kamehameha the Great, the king who unified the Hawaiian islands and founded the Kingdom of Hawaii. It's the sort of place one could spend weeks exploring, but unfortunately I only had two days before it was time to return to the US.

My dad and I arrived in Kailua-Kona, on the west side of the Big Island, on the night of April 2nd, with just enough time to pick up our rental car and drive to our hostel, located in the small town of Volcano. As you might have guessed, Volcano is located by the entrance to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, on the slopes of Kīlauea volcano. Kīlauea is the youngest of the five shield volcanoes that make up the island, and one of the few in the word to have an active lava lake, which is exactly what it sounds like. Unfortunately you can't exactly stand on the rim of the crater and look down into a churning lake of molten rock (unless you want to die from inhaling toxic volcanic gases or get crushed by a lava bomb), but there is an overlook near the Jaggar Museum in the national park where you can see the edge of the crater. Better yet, if you go there before sunrise, you can still catch the glow of the lava.

With no desire to waste our only morning in the national park, we woke up before dawn the next morning and drove out to the Jaggar Museum to get some good lava viewing in. We arrived just a bit later than we should have (my fault for directing us to the wrong parking area), but it was still dark enough that we could see the red glow of the lava reflecting off the clouds. Lava aside, the landscape in that part of the island is breathtaking, a mix of twisted volcanic rock, circular craters venting steam, and stunted vegetation where the forest cover had managed to avoid lava flows. Enough to enthrall anyone with even the slightest interest in geology.

Just the quickest of glimpses of raging hellfire

Steam rising from volcanic vents

(Of course, lately Kīlauea has been of more than just academic interest to people living in the area, as about a month after we left a massive fissure opened up near the crater, burying an entire subdivision in lava. In conjunction with that the level of the lava lake has since dropped, prompting worries that an explosive eruption could be near. I'm not sure if it means that we left Hawaii at just the right time, or just a little bit too early.)

Once the sun had risen, we could also see the flanks of Mauna Loa, the largest of Hawai'i's five volcanoes (though only the second-highest). Mauna Loa isn't as active as Kilauea, but it's still dangerous, having erupted last less than 40 years ago. A particularly nasty eruption could bury the capital city of Hilo in lava, which wouldn't be fun for anyone. Nowadays though, it looks perfectly peaceful.

Entertainingly, it took Europeans 20 years and 3 failed attempts to actually reach the summit of Mauna Loa. This was entirely because, in typical colonial fashion, they never bothered to ask the native Hawaiians how to do it. Finally one of them decided to go through King Kamehameha rather than just figuring it out on his own, and found out that there had been a well-established trail going up to the peak for centuries. That didn't stop the next expedition from making an utter hash of it, trying to find a shortcut and wasting vast amounts of time and resources in the process.

The lower slopes of Mauna Loa

More distant but even more majestic was Mauna Kea, the tallest volcano on the island and the tallest mountain in the world if measuring from base (below sea level) to summit. Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa together are so heavy that they depress the ocean crust below them by 4 miles, making them even taller than the official measurements suggest. Nowadays Mauna Kea is rather quiet, not having erupted for 4,000 years or so, so it's mostly known as one of the best sites for astronomy in the world- the huge telescopes can even be seen from Maui, many miles away.

The still snow-capped summit of Mauna Kea

Ohia flower

Of course, the reason I came to the Big Island wasn't (just) to look at volcanoes- there were lots of feathered things I wanted to see as well. The area around the Jaggar Museum proved to be decent for introduced birds, with Yellow-fronted Canary calling from the trees and an Erckel's Francolin squawking noisily around the parking lot, but of course I was really after the endemic birds.

Erckel's Francolin- if I knew Photoshop I'd get rid of that stupid post in the background

After breakfast, our next stop was the Kilauea Iki trail, where I hoped to find some more endemic birds. Almost as soon as we got out of the car, I saw a Hawaiian Hawk (also known as 'Io) soaring overhead. 'Io are the only endemic raptors in Hawaii, and are only on the Big Island, so this was one I was very happy to see.

Hawaiian Hawk (dark morph)

The Kilauea Iki trail led first through tropical forest, which was absolutely full of bird song. Unfortunately, the birds singing weren't anything new- Japanese Bush Warbler, Japanese White-eye, 'Apapane, Hawaii Amakihi, a single 'Iiwi, and dozens upon dozens of 'Apapane. On the other hand, the views were fantastic- Kilauea Iki was a lava lake with massive lava lake with huge lava fountains in the 1950s, similar to what the current crater of Kilauea is today, but it's since cooled and is now slowly but surely being recolonized by native vegetation. From the crater rim, we descended down into the former lava lake itself. It was a bit unsettling thinking we were walking on what was all molten rock 60 years ago, but very cool. Also cool was the second Hawaiian Hawk we saw perched on a tree near the crater, calling repeatedly.

Kilauea Iki crater from above- easy to picture what it looked like as a lava lake

Hawaiian Hawk (light morph)

Ohia recolonizing the old lava flow

The currently-active crater from a distance

Following the somewhat-exhausting hike across the crater (lava rock isn't always fun to walk on), we returned to the Jaggar Museum for a bathroom break and another look across the active crater. The view wasn't as spectacular as it had been in the dark, but on the other hand there were great views of White-tailed Tropicbirds soaring across the crater. I have no idea what there is to eat for a tropicbird soaring through toxic gases, but whatever it is they seem to enjoy it, and they're a truly beautiful, graceful sight.

White-tailed Tropicbird

Yellow-fronted Canary

After lunch, we opted for a drive along the Chain of Craters Road, a road going from the top of Kilauea down to the coast. The road runs past an impressive array of volcanic landforms, from pit craters like Kilauea Iki to more prominent cinder cones, as well as many, many lava flows old and new. Since it runs right through an active volcano, the road is constantly being shut down when lava ends up flowing across it. I already don't envy the roadwork crews back home in Michigan who have to deal with huge snowfalls and downed power lines, and I can imagine cleaning up molten rock is even less fun.

One of the older craters in the road, with lush forest already growing in it

The coastal edge of Kilauea- the black bits are more recent lava flows

Since there weren't any lava flows in the way, we were able to drive all the way down to the coast, where there was a view of the rock formations and the sea beating against the lava rocks. My favorite part, of course, were the Black Noddies darting among the rocks. The Black Noddy in Hawaii is an endemic subspecies- the Philippines also has its own endemic subspecies, which unfortunately I haven't seen yet. We were also lucky enough to see another pair of Green Sea Turtles swimming off the coast- why they like the waviest, rockiest coastlines so much is beyond me.

Black Noddy- unfortunately I didn't manage to get a good picture

Green Sea Turtle

Satisfied with our volcano viewing, we drove back up the Chain of Craters Road and out of the park. The plan was to head to Old Saddle Road, supposedly a good spot to look for various birds in the afternoon. Unfortunately that was not to be- as we were driving towards Hilo, some cletus in front of us decided it was a good idea to brake suddenly and make a left turn with no signal. The car in front of us slammed their brakes, as did we, but we weren't able to stop in time and ended up in a rear-end collision. We were unharmed, and the car in front miraculously didn't even have a scratch on it, but our rental car was completely totaled.

The local police who answered our 911 call were thankfully perfectly nice and courteous (probably used to dealing with foolish tourist in rental cars), as was the guy we rear-ended. The trouble of course was dealing with the rental car company and their "roadside assistance" number (I use scare quotes there since their entire goal seems to be of as little assistance as possible). Rental car companies are very strict about never giving out the actual number of the local office, meaning that the person you have to talk to is some grumpy call center agent in California who's probably about as happy to be working at 3AM as you are to be calling them in the first place. It took lots of waiting for the call center lady to call the Hawaii office, then call me back, then call back the local office. A Lyft eventually came to pick my dad up to go into Hilo to negotiate with the car rental agency, while I waited another hour by the side of the road in a wrecked car while the tow truck driver came for me- this one was sadly much less friendly than the guy I had during my last incident in Oahu. Thankfully, we had once again made the very wise decision to get rental car insurance, so all it cost us in the end was bruised dignity and wasted time.

It was long past dark by the time we arrived in our Airbnb with a new (and worse) rental car, and all we had time to do that night was fall asleep. The following morning, our first stop after breakfast was the Pu'u 'O'o Trail, located on the "saddle" between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa volcanoes. The trail is a long loop through a series of kipukas- patches of native forest interrupted by old lava flows. The kipukas on the trail hold a good variety of native fauna, including most of Hawaii's extant endemic birds. The most sought-after bird on the trail is the 'Akiapola'au, a strange bird that descended from a finch but now acts like a mix of woodpecker and nuthatch. The main site for the 'Akiapola'au and two other very rare Big Island endemics, the Hawaii 'Akepa and the Hawaii Creeper, is the Hakalau Forest, a protected tract of forest that can only be visited on a dreadfully expensive guided tour. Since we didn't have the money for a tour, we decided to try on the Pu'u 'O'o trail, the only other spot where these are known to occur.

I had high hopes for the trail, but the first half hour of it or so was disappointingly quiet- the only birds singing were the usual 'Apapane and Hawaii Amakihi. The most interesting thing I had on the first kilometer or so of the hike was a better look at the endemic Hawaiian Blue butterfly, as well as some Nene poop, the only sign I ever had of the endemic goose that's supposedly rather common on the island.

Hawaiian Blue

The scenery along the trail

Finally, after a bit of walking things started to pick up, with my first lifers of the day in the form of a flock of Hawai'i 'Elepaio, pudgy wren-like endemic monarch flycatchers. I also got better looks at 'Apapane and, at long last, more 'I'iwi, still my favorite Hawaiian bird.

Hawaii 'Elepaio

'Apapane 

My dad inside one of the kipukas

I'iwi in song

After a long bit of searching, I was finally able to locate my final "realistic" target bird of the day, a singing ‘Ōma’o. ‘Ōma’os are endemic thrushes, and relatively common in the correct habitat, especially since they seem to be gaining an immunity to avian malaria. I'm a huge fan of thrushes, so it was a relief to finally see one.

‘Ōma’o

I would have liked to stay on the trail the whole day to try and get the rarer endemic birds, but it was our last day on the island and I had two more places I wanted to be (I blame the previous day's car accident for the tight schedule). On the way out we happened to run into a Hawaii Forest and Trail bird tour group who were doing the same trail- I was secretly a bit pleased to hear from the guide that they didn't see anything that we didn't (though one of the tour participants reported happily that they'd some some of the "little red ones"). Even better were amazing views of a second 'Oma'o singing from a bare branch- just the views I was hoping to get of one.

Another ‘Ōma’o

Our next stop was the Pu'u La'au trail, a trail through dry scrub forest on the northwestern slope of Mauna Kea. The star bird of Pu'u La'au is the Palila, a small yellow finch that's one of the rarest extant birds on Hawaii. Palila are habitat specialists, relying on the seeds of the mamane, an endemic flowering shrub, for their diets. Mamane seeds are highly toxic, but Palila have somehow adapted to eat them. This probably makes them not terribly appetizing to predators, but unfortunately mamane shrublands are also top grazing lands for introduced feral ungulates like sheep and goats. Palila lost almost all of their habitat during the 20th century, and by the time they were classified as an endangered species their population fell below 2,000 birds. They've since rebounded somewhat, in part thanks to a successful lawsuit that led to the eradication of feral mammals that were destroying the birds' habitat. However, they're still restricted to a territory of about 78 hectares, and number fewer than 5,000 birds, more than enough to merit a "Critically Endangered" listing.

Mamane, the most important part of the Palila diet

Thankfully, despite being extremely rare, Palila are still possible to see in the Pu'u La'au area, where the habitat is protected by a fence that keeps out invasive mammals that could prey on the birds or their nests. Getting there took a long drive up a rough gravel road (in a rental car that definitely wasn't designed for rough gravel roads), long enough that we started to worry that we were in the wrong place. By the time we finally got up to the official start of the trail it had started raining, but we weren't to be deterred now that we had come that far.

Amazingly, only 50 feet or so into the bird preserve, I looked at a shrub and spotted a Palila perched out in the open, feasting on mamane seeds! Not bad for a critically endangered bird- and a huge relief considering how far we'd come to see it.

Palila!

Along the path inside the reserve we encountered two more Palila, as well as a few Hawaii 'Amakihi and a small group of Hawaii 'Elepaio. The 'Elepaio on the slopes of Mauna Kea are actually a different species from the ones I'd seen just recently in Pu'u 'O'o, with dark-brown instead of light-brown heads, so it was good to see them again. They were moving around so much they were hard to get a decent picture of, but they're very cute little birds.

The view from the trail

Hawaii 'Elepaio

(Before I go on, I'd just like to add a side bar about how great it is that Hawaiian birds still keep their Hawaiian names. The Philippines has even more endemic birds than Hawaii does, but with the exception of a "coleto" here or a "colasisi" there we have to deal with boring colonizer names like Goodfellow's Jungle Flycatcher or White-eared Brown Dove. Hawaiian birders, meanwhile, get to use awesome names like Akeke'e, Akikiki, or Palila. So unfair.)

We moved down the mountain after a bit of walking, wanting to get out of the rain and keep moving before it got dark- though we did stop for a bit to enjoy the great landscape. From the slopes of Mauna Kea we could see the saddle in the middle of the island, with grass-covered cinder cones as far as the eye could see. Immediately to the west was Hualalai, the third-highest and fourth-most-interesting of Hawaii's five volcanoes (sorry Kohala). We also got some good looks at introduced birds like Grey Francolin, Northern Mockingbird, and California Quail, brought to the area so that colonizers could do some sport hunting- Europeans are weird.

Kohala, the least-interesting volcano on the Big Island

Hualalai

It was still light by the time we got back to the main road, so we had time for one more stop- Old Saddle Road, the place I'd intended to visit the day before. The road is supposed to be good for the introduced peasants and partridges, as well as the Pueo, the endemic subspecies of the Short-eared Owl, which was what I wanted to see the most. Sure enough, after a bit of driving I got lucky and spotted a Short-eared Owl perched on a dead tree scanning the grasslands for prey. I'm not always a fan of owling but day-time owls are really hard to beat.

Short-eared Owl

Later along the road we had great views of Erckel's Francolin and Ring-necked Pheasant, as well as Wild Turkeys, which I wasn't expecting. Unfortunately I didn't see any Black Francolin, which are also supposedly common in the area, but I'd seen on in Maui so that was okay. Overall an excellent way to finish my brief time birding in Hawaii.

Erckel's Francolin

Ring-necked Pheasant

And with the sunset that was that, as the next day we had to leave early in the morning so that my dad could fly back to Maui, and I could fly back to the Philippines, and get back to work. I'll obviously have to come back to Hawaii at some point, since there are so many birds I haven't seen, but my short time there was an excellent introduction to the islands- a mix of wonder and sadness at seeing all the fantastic birds that are there and realizing how quickly they're all disappearing, despite the best efforts to save them. As it is, we're all hoping for a miracle in Hawaii's ecosystem, and trying to see everything while we can in the mean time.