THE NATIONAL PARKS
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and Haleakala National Park are two of more than 180 different areas administered by the National Park Service for your enjoyment. The two areas, Haleakala on Maui and Kilauea-Mauna Loa on Hawaii, were set aside, as one park, by Congress in 1916 mainly because of the three great volcanoes. In July 1961 Haleakala became a separate national park. In recent years the unique flora and fauna found in the parks have become an increasingly important part of the park story. Thus you will find several interesting exhibits at the Kilauea headquarters museum dealing with the ecology of the park with emphasis on the birdlife.
One of the guiding principles for any national park is that all native species of plants and animals are rigidly protected. In places like Hawaii, where so much of the land has been altered through clearing and planting, the park becomes a particularly important sanctuary for birds and other animals. Please help do your share in protecting this area by observing park regulations.
ABOUT THIS BOOKLET
The purpose of this booklet is to help anyone who cares to learn about the birdlife of the national parks in Hawaii. Many of you, here in Hawaii for the first time, will not recognize most of our birds; however, the species are so few (32 described here) that it will not be too hard to narrow your identification to the correct one. The little perching birds are likely to give the most trouble, and the commonest of these are shown on the [color plate]. You will probably want to refer to the plate first when identifying a small bird. Descriptions in the text refer to similar species also, so if you see a bird that appears somewhat, but not exactly, like one of the illustrations, look up the illustrated species in the text for clues.
Hawaiian names, when known, are used as the common name for each bird, except for species that range elsewhere (e.g., all the sea birds and introduced birds). The A.O.U. Checklist of North American Birds has been used as the authority of nomenclature wherever applicable, otherwise the Checklist and Summary of Hawaiian Birds by E. H. Bryan, Jr., has been followed. For every description, length from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail is given in inches. The stated distributions are for the park only and they emphasize accessible places that you are most likely to visit.
The serious bird student will want to have books that include Hawaiian birds outside the park. The latest edition of Peterson’s A Field Guide to Western Birds includes a section on Hawaii and will prove invaluable.
In preparing the text for this booklet frequent reference was made to George C. Munro, 1944, Birds of Hawaii and Hawaii Audubon Society, 1959, Hawaiian Birds. The most important current references for the Hawaiian honeycreeper group are Dean Amadon’s (1950) monograph, The Hawaiian Honeycreepers and Annual Cycle, Environment and Evolution in the Hawaiian Honeycreepers by Paul H. Baldwin (1953). Baldwin, a former Assistant to the Superintendent of Hawaii National Park, has authored several other important papers on birdlife here. The Game Birds in Hawaii by Charles W. and Elizabeth R. Schwartz is an invaluable reference on gamebirds.
The author wishes to acknowledge helpful suggestions made by E. H. Bryan, Jr., of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum; Robert L. Barrel, Robert W. Carpenter, and Robert T. Haugen of Hawaii National Park; and Ronald L. Walker and David H. Woodside of the State Division of Fish and Game. The Bishop Museum generously loaned study specimens for the drawings.
The black and white and color drawings are by Ronald L. Walker, and all photographs are by the author except where noted.