Big Year Birding in Hawaii - Part 2

On my fourth day of birding in the State of Hawaii (Sunday, October 15, 2023), I joined an organized tour on the island of Oahu, led by birding guide Mandy Talpas. To accomplish this, Bill Kaempfer dropped me at Kona airport at 5:00 AM. The commuter flight took off on time at 6:00 AM for a 45-minute flight to Honolulu, Hawaii’s capital city on the island of Oahu. An airport taxi took me to Waikiki Beach where I met the guide and her three other customers at 7:15 AM. I saw several White Tern (USA and Territories Biggest Year-bird number 793) from the taxi. The first stop of the birding tour was a large tree on a city boulevard where several pairs of these beautiful white birds were nesting and frolicking in the air over traffic like fairies. The second stop of the tour was a tropical forest. The lush rainforest vegetation was impressive but Mandy explained to us that none of it was native to Hawaii.  Here we found many Warbling White-eye, Red-billed Leiothrix, White-rumped Shama (794), Red-crested Cardinal (795), and Rose-ringed Parakeet, all exotic species. But the real attraction was the one endemic honeycreeper - Oahu Amikihi (796). Then we went to a narrow canyon near the Diamond Head crater. Mandy had worked in this canyon on a conservation project for the Oahu Elepaio. Sorting through the many exotic Red-vented Bulbul and Red-whiskered Bulbul, the Oahu Elepaio (797) eventually emerged as if to greet their old friend Mandy! The last stop of the morning was Honolulu’s famous Kapiolani Park where we parked in front of a massive Banyon tree. The tree was fruiting and it’s food laden branches attracted hordes of hungry birds, all exotic species. We counted 20 species of birds comingling in and around the tree. It was a beautiful site to see such variety living together in peace and harmony. In this era of racism and hatred among humans, I felt we had something to learn from these exotic birds. 

Mandy was an eloquent spokesperson for the plight of the endemic birds of Hawaii.  I had first met Mandy earlier this year in April on the repositioning cruise from San Diego to Vancouver.  I asked her if she had any upcoming pelagic trips. In fact she had one coming up on Tuesday of next week out of Kona but the boat was full already. She promised to ask the boat captain if she could take one more passenger. If that didn’t work, she could organize another pelagic outing in December. 


I took an afternoon flight back to Kona hopeful that I would have an opportunity to add more seabirds to my Biggest Year list. 

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