ʻApapane
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2008) |
| ʻApapane | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||||||||||||
| Conservation status | ||||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
| Binomial name | ||||||||||||||
| Himatione sanguinea (Gmelin, 1788) |
The ʻApapane (Himatione sanguinea) is a species of finch in the Fringillidae family. It is endemic to Hawaiʻi. Just like the Iiwi, a native bird to the Hawaiian Islands, the feathers of the ʻApapane were once used to adorn the chief's clothes like cloaks, helmets, and feather leis. The bright crimson feathers were only collected from the adult ʻApapane, not from the duller juvenile ʻApapane. ʻApapane are found many times in small companies, foraging actively through tree tops of Ohia lehua, hopping from flower to flower consuming the nectar from each flower they probe while also pollinatig it at the same time. Forages are mostly done in the upper forest canopy and only rarely do they feed from the ground. During times of low flowering of Ohia trees, the ʻApapane will be aggressive and scare of any bird that dares drink from its flowers, even it close large relatives, the ʻAkohekohe and the I'iwi.
The bird is considered to be an active singer. The males are known for their singing patterns at all times of the day. They have six different calls and about ten different recorded song patterns. The contact call or song of a male ʻApapane is mainly used for mate attraction and breeding. The male who is aggressive and sings the loudest is the one who wins the females attention. Once courtship and pair formation has been established, and copulation is complete, both male and female ʻApapane are involved in the nestling process. The male role is important for maintaining courtship feeding during the nest construction and incubation period. The male ʻApapane sings continuously during incubation, while the female does not sing at all. His loud whistling, and chirping sound chases other male birds away from the nesting tree, while he sits on an adjacent perch guarding the nest. The ʻApapane have two distinct flight patterns: straight flight and a circling flight.
Contents |
[edit] Description
An adult ʻApapane has a slender shape at a height of about 13 cm when fully grown. A male ʻApapane weighs in at about 16 grams, just only a few grams heavier than the female. There is a distinct gender difference between the two. The major traits of an adult ʻApapane are the slightly curved dark bluish bill; bright crimson top and back; white bottom and under tail; with black wings and legs. A unique characteristic of the ʻApapane is the cocked white tail. The white under tail is a distinctive feature that separates the ʻApapane from the other similar native birds. Juvenile ʻApapane are pink in color when hatched and are covered in patches of dull brownish feathers. The brown color changes to crimson at maturity. Along with crimson, it can be white black and grey with small black eyes and a brown outline. The back of its wings and its tail are colored black, while back bottom is a greyish-white.
[edit] Distribution
They are commonly found in the wet, mesic forests of Ohia lehua tree blossoms, located on the island of Kauai at Kokee Park, Koolau Range on Oahu, and a large population of ʻApapane at the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island of Hawaii. It lives on the islands oh Hawaii, Maui, Lanai, Kauai, Molokai and Oahu. Most of these birds survive on Hawai’i where about eighty-six percent or 1,080,000 thrive in the higher O’hia forests. The next largest population is found on Maui, it is made up of 110,000 individuals, most of them found in the protected forests of East Maui. The next largest population is found on Molokai with a healthy number of 39,000 birds. On Kauai, there is a population of about 30,000 ʻApapane, most survive in the protected reserves like in the Alakai Swamp. There are small relic populations of ʻApapane found on Oahu and Lanai. On both islands, there are approximately five-hundred birds. The nest of the ʻApapane are mostly found in the crown of the Ohia trees but evidence has shown that nests have also been found in lava tubes on the Island of Hawaii. The Ohia lehua tree is a native plant to the Hawaiian Islands and is mostly found in high altitudes above 1250 m above the sea level.
[edit] Threats
The ʻApapane can be found on six out of the eight Hawaiian Islands because the ʻApapane prefer a habitat in high altitude regions for protection from predators like the mongoose, rat, and deadly avian malaria carrying mosquitoes These predators are the cause for the great decline in the ʻApapane population. Today there are an estimated 3000 ʻApapane in Hawaii. Although still low in numbers, the ʻApapane is not considered to be an endangered species It has one of the highest proneness to the diseases like Avian Pox. This is so because this bird flies down to lower elevations in search of blossoms to feed of off. As it goes down to these lower elevations it is heading toward areas that have infected mosquitos and it too is infected. This bird also has the highest mortality of the species to the diseases. Once bitten, this bird reacts by creating large lumps on its body. These lumps will continue to grow till the bird is treated or till the bird becomes paralyzed and dies of starvation. It is believed that at least a small part of the total of the birds are beginning to grow resistant to the diseases, as some pairs have been seen breeding even in mid-elevation forests, which have a small amount of infected mosquitos.
[edit] Diet
The ʻApapane generally feed on nectar from flowers preferably from the Ohia lehua tree.Its diet is composed of O’hia blossoms along with several types of flowers and some invertebrates. These birds are mainly found in Koa (Acacia koa) and O’hia (Metrosideros polymorpha) forests where the flower count. They are also normally found above the 4100 foot mark, to avoid mosquitos. It also survives in areas that contain Naio or the Sandalwood tree and in the Mamane forests of Hawai’i. Although primarilynectavorous, the diet of a grown ʻApapane also includes a variety of insects like grasshoppers, caterpillars and bugs of all sorts.
[edit] Breeding
The breeding season is during the months of January through July. Only female ʻApapane incubate. After hatching, both male and female feed the young juveniles and care for them until they are reading to fly out on their own time. The female have approximately 2-4 eggs (white in color with red markings) a year. Incubation lasting 13-14 days and during this time the female does not sing at all. When the chicks are born the eyes are closed and it will take four days to open. After the sixth day blotches of brown feathers begin to appear on the back and the mouth lining is pink in color. After this the chicks are very multi-colored. They will be gold, pink, red, green, and black. They will be weaned in a month, but can stay up to four months or a year with the parents.
[edit] Conservation
Today there are no real actions that are being taken to this species, however any thing that is being done to help rarer species of birds through out Hawaii have been helping out the ʻApapane. With the extermination of the rats, these birds have less of a chance of their nests to be looted of their chicks. The removal of cats will also help with the reduction of loss of adults. The removal of pigs will stop the creation of new wallows were new mosquitos can grow. The possible use of pesticide will remove the mosquitos from the areas, reducing the chance of receiving diseases from unusual situations, Or we can release a sterile male to create infertile eggs, and none would hatch and the female would not have any eggs left to lay, causing a drop in the insect population. Much of its habitat is in multiple conditions, some of the land including the parts under federal jurisdiction are highly managed and much of the invasive ungulates from the areas such as pigs, goats and cattle have been removed almost completely if not completely. In more unattended areas however are highly degraded areas and have many if not all of the former ungulates. This bird is very high in numbers and is secured through most of its range however seems to share the same problems as all the other species of Hawaiian Honeycreepers in the area.
The ʻApapane had a subspecies, H. s. freethi, that was endemic to Laysan Island. It differed from the regular ʻApapane by being a much paler color, bordering on pink. However, the introduction of rabbits in 1903 led to the destruction of the subspecies' nesting habitat, and the subspecies became extinct in 1923 in a sandstorm.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ Ellis, Richard (2004). No Turning Back: The Life and Death of Animal Species. New York: Harper Perrenial, 156. ISBN 0-06-055804-0.
- BirdLife International 2004. Himatione sanguinea. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 10 July 2007.
