Hawaii - birds!

I brought the 70-210mm telephoto zoom to Hawaii specifically with the intention of taking pictures of birds.

It turns out most birds are rather small and do not sit still for photographs, but here are some who did! Most of these images were cropped for further magnification.

Ducks! I think ducks are pretty cool.

We followed one female duck into this banyan in Kapiolani Park.

You'll have to look closely, but there she is inside:

Does that mean this will eventually happen?

We also saw many feral chickens around. These were hanging around the lifeguard tower in Hanauma Bay.

After watching them for awhile, it soon became apparent why they were hanging about the lifeguard tower. The aluminum foil on the ground holds some leftover burrito. I hope it wasn't a chicken burrito...

The bird that comes along at the very end is a common myna, and we saw a lot of them around Oahu. They're an invasive species (introduced 1865) and sufficiently common that I didn't think to take a picture, but I guess we don't have them here in the continental US, except in Florida.

Zebra doves are very common. They were also introduced (1922), but it doesn't sound like they're as damaging to the native ecosystem as the mynas are.

Rock doves (a.k.a. pigeons) are another very common species (introduced 1796).

We saw a lot more of these white pigeons than the blue-gray/iridescent green ones you see in cities throughout the world.

These birds were less common, but still seen in urban areas:

Red-crested Cardinal (introduced 1930).

Red-vented Bulbul (introduced 1950's).

Pacific golden Plover. These migrate between Southeast Asia/Australia/Oceania and breeding sites in Eastern Siberia/Alaska. I think that makes them the only species I photographed that wasn't introduced by humans.

White-rumped Shama (introduced 1940). I saw this one at Lyon Arboretum (which is kind of a hike), but the Internet says they're common closer to human habitation, too.

Finally, this blue-and-yellow Macaw is somebody's pet (probably the guy who was sleeping underneath this tree when I took this picture). Here he is showing off his clipped wings:

I used this site for the introduction dates and to help me identify the birds.