I‘iwi. Endangered Native Hawaiian Bird

[Tom Kualii]

Being a lava photographer, mother earth does have her times when she decides enough with the pictures. So in the mean time I am out looking for other subjects to shoot here in our islands. Recently I got the bug to photograph our endangered native Hawaiian birds. Slowly they are declining. Since I been

on this earth, we have lost 11 birds. Most of our problems are the mosquitos that carry diseases which kills our birds. The Iʻiwi is one of them. A royal bird that only the kings in ancient times were allow to use the feathers for their capes, helmets, and royal artifact symbols. This bird can only be found in Hawaii. 83% on the slopes of Mauna Kea on the Big Island. I was very lucky to have been able to get this close to have the time to get a few shots off. Aloha

 

[JimFox]

Hey Tom,

It's sad to hear about the decline of the # of birds. But this is a really sweet looking bird. So very colorful! Nice job on this one, and if there were cool looking birds like that in SoCal, I would be out shooting them too!

 

[Tom Kualii]

Hey Tom,

It's sad to hear about the decline of the # of birds. But this is a really sweet looking bird. So very colorful! Nice job on this one, and if there were cool looking birds like that in SoCal, I would be out shooting them too!

Thank you Jim. Aloha

 

[AlanLichty]

Beautiful bird. Sad to hear of it's population decline.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Rare enough to get this close to bird with such a great background. But such a rare bird at that. Congrats

 

[Tom Kualii]

Beautiful bird. Sad to hear of it's population decline.

Thank you.

 

[Tom Kualii]

Rare enough to get this close to bird with such a great background. But such a rare bird at that. Congrats

Thank you.

 

[Douglas Sherman]

Beautiful image, Tom. I am assuming that this bird is hard to find.

 

[Ron Tuscany]

What a sweet shot Douglas. Beautiful animal. I hope they recover!

 

[Jim Dockery]

Great shot, thanks for sharing the story too.

 

[Joe Colozzo]

so sad, but thank you for sharing this beautiful bird and their story!