So there's a book that's really informative, it's called "The Birds of Kaua'i" by Jim Denny and it has all kinds of information and is very easy to carry. Here are my birds:
Birds of the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge (and the awesomest lighthouse/red-footed booby combination picture):
- Nēnē (Hawaiian Goose) - Like a canadian goose but hawaiian
- 'Ā (Red-Footed Booby) - Awesome fliers, intensely graceful in the air. On the floor: boobies.
- 'A'o (Newell Shearwater) - Injured at the foot of the lighthouse! terrible!
- 'Iwa (Great Frigatebird) - INSANIQUARIUM OF A BIRD these things have a 7-ft wingspan and weigh about 3 lbs. They fly up to about 500 ft, and they scare other birds into dropping their food and they swoop down and steal it from them (hence the name 'Iwa)
- Koa'e Kea (White-Tailed Tropicbird) and Koa'e 'Ula (Red-Tailed Tropicbird) - These birds are clown-birds. You would figure because they have such pretty long elegant tails they would be equally elegant, but no, they spent the whole time hitting on each other and flying around and being generally disagreeable. And they steer themselves in the air with their tails, so they keep whipping around over and over, apparently getting their mates dizzy is a good way to mate. gargl.
- Either the 'Anianiau or the 'Akeke'e, I can't tell for sure because they are about 4 inches long, they are fast and were at the top of a tree. Can't see any beaks at that distance.
- 'Apapane - it actually was an 'apapane! I thought it was a northern cardinal.
- Northern Cardinal - Did not expect this one up there. But there he was, maybe it feels like Boston in the summer up there.
- Chukar - I think. It was pretty fast in the car and it was kind of just standing there.
- 'Auku'u (Black-Crowned Night Heron) - D.E. 1/10. Hanging out outside next to the valet parking and then hunting around the garden outside my room.
- Cattle Egret - D.E.: 4/10. Floridian import, it hangs out at any man-kept lawn (kind of like human floridians, maybe it likes pink flamingoes)
- Common Myna - D.E.: 8/10. Friggin' everywhere! These birds are social and they're mean! As soon as we got there, we saw these two birds ganging up on another one, and that one bird that was losing was upside down in the middle of a road, and a truck came over and ran it over a little, the other two birds flew off just in time but the other one kinda flopped, kinda skipped over to the side of the road, where the other two birds promptly continued the feathered-butt kicking.
- Domestic Chicken and Moa (Red Junglefowl)D.E.: 8/10. Imagine a McDonalds where, instead of having pigeons chasing after your french fries, there's chickens. And hens. And roosters getting territorial on each other. That was fun.
- House Finch D.E.: 8/10 and House Sparrow D.E.: 1/10. Very similar but not to be confused, the sparrows were hanging out at the airport, and the finches (a.k.a. "Swoopers") ate the bread out of the baskets at the breakfast buffet. They are abusing little meanies. The colors are less intense than in the mainland.
- Red Crested Cardinal D.E.: 4/10. Imagine a gray cardinal that got its head dunked in bright red ink.
- Spotted Dove and Zebra Dove D.E.: 2/10. Sometimes around the hotel.
- White-Rumped Shama - No D.E. on this one, just saw one at the fern grotto, and it was exciting! They're apparently hard to find and approach.
- Rock Dove D.E.: 1/10. Saw them in a shopping mall. It actually make me wonder if they come with the cinder blocks or the Hot Topic merchandise, I did not see any other of these anywhere else.
