Birdwatching in Hawaii

Did you know that Hawaii has 21 of the 23 climate zones? It only lacks the Arctic tundra (and who wants that?!) and the Saharan landscape. blink

If you are a bird watcher then this is a great place to go. On first arriving I was able to spot many new birds that I had never seen before. Birds such as the grey francolin, the Japanese white eye, the Pacific golden plover, among many others, and that was just on my walk around the hotel! Grin

The next day we went on a tour of a private ranch located in the rainforest area of the island. These tours are widely available and you can arrange one right from your hotel. The ranch was located 3,200 feet above sea level and we were able to spot more interesting birds. Some of the more interesting ones were the Hawaiian honeycreeper, the apapane, the elepaio and the the Hawaiian Amikihi. There were some truly amazing species.

The next two days we went to other sections of the island and managed to spot the saffron finch, Java sparrow, the Hawaiian coot and the wandering tattler among many others. I now realise that many of these wonderful birds I was miraculously able to look at are on the endangered species list. It will truly be a shame if we lose some of these great birds.