Birds in Honolulu

Back in late February, I travelled to Hawaii for 9 days to photograph birds. Most of my trip was on the big island of Hawaii, but I spent the first two nights in Honolulu on Oahu before flying to Kona on Hawaii. In Honolulu, I stayed at the far end of Waikiki Beach across from Kapiolani Park. Wandering through the park while I was there, I was able to add 15 birds to my life list. Above is a Saffron Finch.

While there were the ubiquitous House Sparrows about, I really enjoyed discovering these Java Sparrows.

One does not easily get a sense of how tiny these Common Waxbills are from this photo, but they are distinctly smaller than sparrows or finches which are small birds in their own right.

Yellow-fronted Canaries were fairly common, yet I was never able to get a photograph that I particularly liked. This one is fine for showing the bird, but I do not find it at all compelling as a photograph.

The Warbling White-eye has an extremely noticeable ring around its eye as the photo above shows. I do not remember if the insect it is staring at became an afternoon snack.

Moving to slightly larger birds, I loved the very striking Red-crested Cardinals.

Somewhat similar in size is this Red-vented Bulbul. I clipped the ends of the tail feathers on this shot, but it is the best photo that I have that shows the red feathers under its tail.

By far the most common birds I saw were the Common Myna. I like the apparently stern and disapproving expression of this bird as it glances down towards me.

Running around the park were many Red Junglefowl. These are birds descended from the ones brought over to Hawaii by the Polynesians many centuries ago. There is a good chance that this bird also has some domesticated chicken in its background. This is part of the reason they are often referred to as Hawaiian Chickens.

There were two types of doves in the area. By far the more common were Zebra Doves such as this one above. These are relatively small and compact doves, a fair bit smaller and rounder than Mourning Doves.

In contrast, the Spotted Dove seems rather like the Mourning Dove in size and shape. The spotting pattern on their lower neck is quite distinctive.

While the Pacific Golden-Plover is a shore bird, there were a number of them wandering on the grass and dirt of the park.

At one point while facing towards the ocean, I saw this Great Frigatebird soaring high in the air. They are not common, so I was delighted to get this shot.

Moderately frequently, I would see White Terns darting around. Apparently, they breed right in Honolulu but are seen only very rarely on the other Hawaiian Islands.

I will end this post with a photo of a Rose-ringed Parakeet. Hopefully I will get the first of several posts showcasing birds from the big island of Hawaii published later this week.