Chapter 7. In the Air

Native Birds of the Hawaiian Islands

Birds, birds, birds! Birds by the hundreds, thousands, millions! Seabirds, landbirds, wetland birds, migrating birds. Hawks and owls and crows.

Albatross and native ducks. Stilts perched on tall legs in the taro fields. A goose adapted to walking on barren lava flows. In the dense higher forests are birds with every manner of beak for probing bark, cracking open seeds, or extracting the nectar of native flowers.