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| Vestiaria coccinea |
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| Scarlet Honeycreeper, "I'iwi" |
The I'iwi, or scarlet honeycreeper is one of the best known species of Hawaiian endemic finch species. Usually it is just seen as a red flash as it disappears into the native forest, however with a little (or a lot) of patience you may be lucky enough to see an I'iwi land and feed on a colorful tree.
The honeycreepers here in Hawaii are all descendants of one finch ancestor. Think about Darwin sailing to the Galapagos islands and finding a dozen or so different finch species there, all filling different niches, eventually leading Darwin to his theory of evolution. If he would have come to the Hawaiian islands instead, Darwin would have found 54 different species of finch, and most likely would have come to his conclusion of evolution years earlier!
Not all species have survived as well as our I'iwi, and even those are regulated to the high elevation patches of native forest. Thanks to the introduction of cats, rats, mongoose, and man we are unfortunately down to 17 species of honeycreepers. Being endemic to Hawaii they were not used to having any kind of land predator. The final blow came from the accidental introduction of mosquitoes to the islands in the mid 1840's. The islands are too isolated for mosquitoes to have ever found there own way but after being accidentally introduced in the fresh water barrels of merchant ships, they quickly spread among the islands. They acted as the vector for introduced avian diseases which the native birds had no resistance for. Luckily for honeycreepers who had adapted to the higher elevation niches they avoided the warm climate loving mosquitoes by staying in the cooler mountain climates.
The I'iwi is one of these. Which means to find them you have to travel to one of the volcanoes. Here on Maui the best place is
Hossmers Grove nature trail. This is about 6000ft up the slope of Haleakala Volcano, just inside the boundary of the national park. You can see them here any time of day, although the most activity seems to be in the early morning. Find the gulch filled with ohia lehua trees and then keep an eye out for those flashes of red. With only 17 of 54 original species of honeycreeper left, it is worth seeing them while you still can.
The honeycreepers here in Hawaii are all descendants of one finch ancestor. Think about Darwin sailing to the Galapagos islands and finding a dozen or so different finch species there, all filling different niches, eventually leading Darwin to his theory of evolution. If he would have come to the Hawaiian islands instead, Darwin would have found 54 different species of finch, and most likely would have come to his conclusion of evolution years earlier!
Not all species have survived as well as our I'iwi, and even those are regulated to the high elevation patches of native forest. Thanks to the introduction of cats, rats, mongoose, and man we are unfortunately down to 17 species of honeycreepers. Being endemic to Hawaii they were not used to having any kind of land predator. The final blow came from the accidental introduction of mosquitoes to the islands in the mid 1840's. The islands are too isolated for mosquitoes to have ever found there own way but after being accidentally introduced in the fresh water barrels of merchant ships, they quickly spread among the islands. They acted as the vector for introduced avian diseases which the native birds had no resistance for. Luckily for honeycreepers who had adapted to the higher elevation niches they avoided the warm climate loving mosquitoes by staying in the cooler mountain climates.
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