Hawaiian Birds and Wildlife Mega Photo Post

I just got back from my honeymoon on Hawaii (the Big Island and Kauai). It was fantastic. Here are photos of as many birds as I could get, starting with exotics and introduced birds, then seabirds and shorebirds, then some of the islands beautiful endemics. Then, what the hell, some photos of other creatures. Enjoy.

Exotics

A Northern Cardinal! This one at Kilauea NWR. Looked large-billed to me. 

Japanese White-eye. These little guys were absolutely everywhere, from high-elevation forests to seaside bushes. I got fairly used to recognizing their wren-ish chatterings, but they seemed to have a variety of vocalizations. Pretty birds, but frustrating when looking for endemics at high elevations because these birds are the same greenish color as many of the honeycreepers.

Red Junglefowl. We saw a few on the Big Island but these guys were EVERYWHERE on Kauai. Literally the most common bird. Friendly enough, but woke us the hell up every morning.

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Cracking the Nut

I'm fascinated by the story of the chestnut blight, which killed an estimated four billion American chestnut trees in the first half of the 20th century.  Four billion!  Thousands and thousands of trees dying across the landscape each day. This disease had a transformative effect upon the American landscape, but it's largely forgotten today.

I wrote about the chestnut blight, and some inspiring efforts to replant blight-resistant trees at Flight 93 National Memorial in western Pennsylvania, for the magazine of the National Parks Conservation Association.  Here's a link if you'd like to take a look.