Puaiohi
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| Myadestes palmeri (Rothschild, 1893) |
The Puaiohi or the Small Kauai Thrush is a rare thrush that is endemic to Kauai. Puaiohi are small, drab birds that have long, slender blackish yellow bills. They have pink feet, legs and some white thigh feathers. The adult birds are highly similar and are olive-brown on top, while the belly is light grey. A white eye ring around the eye is a major trade mark of the species, which distinguishes it from its larger cousin, the Kamao. The chicks are brown, with a pattern interchanging white from brown. The bills of the young are more yellow and the belly is more brown then grey. The Puaiohi is some what tubby, however is not as tubby as it larger relative that lives on Hawaii, the Omao. It songs sound like water gurgling. It was first collected by Henry Palmer in 1891 at Halemanu, which means “bird house” in Hawaiian, around the entrance to the Koke’e State Park. It was a rare species that remained rare from the time other species were still common till now when many animals have also become rare. Some scientists may have not seen the species because of its cryptic behavior and its notable shyness.
The Puaiohi are only found natively on Kauai, where the species is restricted to the center and southern parts of the Alakai Plateau. It is usually found in forests from 1,050 meters to 1,300 meters up the plateau. In the Alakai Reserve, if you take in consideration all the land it lives in, including gullies, valleys and upland forests, you find it live only in about twenty kilometers or about twelve miles of land.
Due to their ability to be elusive and shy, normal methods of calculating their numbers do not work very well. According to the recent data, the population should be just about over two hundred. This estimate is only a little more than the one the Fish and Wildlife Service had said in 1968-1973. However it seems that numbers have not changed because the species had been almost completely aniulated the species during two large hurricanes. However, the 1968-1973 period of decline, while the 2000s is a time for increase in population. Even with this increase of population, these birds can still be wiped out by a large hurricane, which almost exterminated the species in the first place. This thrush is now only found in wet high mountain forests between 1,050 to 1,300 meters in elevation. It is mostly found near streams and rivers and ridges in the Alakai Swamp. The Small Kauai Thrush also likes to live in large ravines, and a large assortment of native flora. These include the O’hia, O’hia ha and the Olapa. This sort of habitat is so unreachable that the firsts nests made by this species were not found till 1981.
The females made lichen lined nests in the cliffs. Inside a hole or small crevice the nest would be made. The nests are also made inside tree ferns and other short trees. The female spends about two weeks incubating one to two bluish eggs. Once the chicks have hatched, the female will do the majority of the feeding. However, once the chicks have left the nest, it is the males job to feed the chicks. This bird has sometimes grouped up with other birds, these birds will help the pair feed, guard and take care of the young. The Puaiohi chicks start out as small birds only the size of a dime and has only small puffs of feathers all over its body. However over the course of two months, the chick will grow ten times heavier than it was then. It will also be able to fly and able to feed its self. The Puaiohi have an extended breeding season, from March to November, during this time they may make up to three broods during a season, and if the brood fails or fully develops, it may produce another nest and chicks. In rarer cases, females will even begin the creation of another nest while there are still chicks in the original nest. Males also act peculiar in rare cases. They may pair up with two or more females and help with all of them with the nest making and the feeding of all the chicks. Due to its great yearly reproductive yield (six eggs, rarely more), this species is very easy to deal with and populations can easily be created. This bird is unusual in its diet.
Outside the breeding season, most of the diet takes up fruit and berries. In the breeding season though or fifty percent of the diet shifts to invertebrates. This shift in diet is a result of the parents insuring that the chicks get enough protein in their diet.
The species is threatened by rats, which can go in nests and literally steal the chicks right from inside. Due to human alteration of low altitude forests, much of the good land above the mosquito line has invasive species that can harm and or are not beneficial for the Small Kauai Thrush. Mosquitos which were brought in the 1920s have viruses that are very harmful for the Puaiohi.
Due to all of these environmental problems, the Small Kauai Thrush was added to the Fish and Wildlife List of Endangered animals in 1967. To preserve the species and many others living in Kauai, we created the Alakai Preserve in 1964, which contains most if not all the Puaiohi on the island. In 1995 when a small flock of ten to twenty-five birds were discovered, scientists went to work on learning more about the species and how to save it. In 1995, environmentalists did two measures to save the species. One was to protect the remaining population and make rat proof nests and rodenticide that would kill rats. The other solution was to take several eggs and hatch them, creating a captive population. In 1999, the population in captivity was growing so birds were taken from the group and sent to the Alakai Preserve. The birds were taken from areas like Sam Diego and Hawaii and were sent to Kauai. Before they were released into the farthest reaches of the Alakai Swamp, they were put in Aviaries in their habitat. The aviaries are to be used to show the birds their native diet and to make the birds accustomed to the area before release. Once they are more calm and used to the area they will be taken by helicopter to more isolated areas and be released. Two of the birds paired up and nested, laying two eggs and were a big success. This was the first time that a bird from Hawaii was taken and released back to create a larger and a more wide spread population. By April of 2006, there was a total of two hundred babies hatched in captivity and a hundred thirteen released back into the wild. Due to their high success rate, these birds have gone from ten to twenty five birds all the way up to two hundred to four hundred birds. Other bird populations include fourteen captive birds on the Big Island. The birds had also spread from only a small fraction of their range to twenty percent of its ancestral range. The Puaiohi has also served as a teaching tool to show that we can save a species, even in the most awful conditions.
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2004). Myadestes palmeri. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is critically endangered
- (2005). Hawaii's Birds. Hawaii Audubon Society. Sixth ed.
