Cats and Trails and Garden Tales

It was just last month that we were in Oahu enjoying the sunshine, beaches, and swaying palm trees….

and yes, the birds!

If you follow this blog, you’ll know that I’m an avid birdwatcher and I love birds of all colors, sizes and persuasions. So I’m finally back as promised to share some of my favorite birds from Oahu.

I’ll start with these sweet doves. They were everywhere, gentle and talkative, both the Zebra Dove and the Spotted Dove. I spent a lot of time figuring out which was which, but now that I have, it seems pretty obvious! The first one has the stripes thus ‘zebra’ and how about those baby blue eyes? The second has the distinctive spots, hence the name and is the larger of the two.

(Click on pictures in the galleries to enlarge them.)

Interestingly, I saw them sharing the same space as the free roaming kitty cats at Ala Moana Park so perhaps they struck up some kind of truce? (I hope so.)

Next are the Common Waxbills. I saw these tiny birds in the grass, always as part of a flock. Just between me and you – I always feel a little bad when any creature has ‘common’ in its name. So let me tell you it’s also known as St Helena Waxbill, and is native to sub-Saharan Africa, a member of the estrildid finch family.

They looked like a miniature version of the Red-crested or Brazilian Cardinal below, which seemed to have the same habits. I love the bright red in both species!

I found the Cattle Egrets in large grassy fields where they were unafraid and willing to pose for me. These were at the Kualoa Regional Park on the windward side of the island and are native to Africa and Spain.

The Black-crowned Night Heron are native to Hawaii, and I found them everywhere in Waikiki, where they were always looking for dinner.

I saw many Pacific Golden Plovers, also native to Hawaii, on or near beaches.

I only found one of these handsome birds – a Red-whiskered BulBul chattering away at Wahiawa Botanical Garden. They feed on fruits, insects, and nectar and are native to tropical Asia.

The White-rumped Shama or Shama Thrush, was hanging out at the Waimea Valley Arboretum. I believe the fluffy one in the second picture is a juvenile Shama and he was singing up a storm when I came upon him.

Moving on, please tell me – why did the chicken cross the road? Perhaps to get away from all the other chickens! I saw them everywhere on the island, a nuisance to some, but charming to me, and protected.

Finally, I’ll close with my favorite little songbird. I found him in the middle of Waikiki, flitting among the flowers on the grounds of one of the hotels. He was so fast, I thought it might be a hummingbird. Solitary, and native to E. Asia, it was a Japanese White-eye or Mejiro. My checklist noted that it can be hard to spot in the trees, so I felt special for having seen it.

Checklist? Yes, I identified all the birds in this post from checklists that I picked up at the Botanical Gardens we visited. (Here’s more on the gardens if you missed it.)

And that will do for today.

Sharing with Sunday Stills, Shades of Brown.

~ Susanne