Status: Protected as an Endangered Species in the United States
IUCN Classification: Near Threatened
Scientific Name: Buteo Solitarius
This magnificent bird is the only hawk native to Hawai'i. I recently learned about it while watching the newest Nature episode on PBS: Kilauea: Mountain of Fire. During the documentary the filmmakers explore kipukas or volcano oases. As you can imagine they are areas where stubborn vegetation grows despite being surrounded by hardened lava. Usually as the lava finds new avenues through the ground these oases can be totally destroyed. But, there are always new ones that spring up.
So, I was researching these kipukas (I couldn't find them for the longest time b/c I thought they were spelled kapukas or kapookas) and I found many pictures and amongst them were pictures of birds that frequent these oases. As I was browsing I came across this persons online journal of their current travels through Hawai'i. In a post from sometime in February there are some pictures of an 'Io resting in a tree. This bird really fascinated me so I started looking it up and I realized that this is the perfect animal to be the first that I share on this blog. I want to bring light to animals that are between slightly endangered to critically endangered. This is one that is in the middle. It is only found on Hawai'i, so it has a very localized population, and there are somewhere between 1,600 to 2,700 birds. That may not sound like a lot, but the population is still pretty stable since the area they inhabit is so small. The danger comes with the native ohi'a trees they nest in. These trees are where their most successful nesting occurs and they are slow growing and generally in decline. Continuing threats include forest clearance for agriculture and other developments, logging, and the actions of introduced ungulates that degrade native forests and inhibit their regeneration. The lack of information on historical numbers makes an assessment of this species difficult, and the underlying trend may be of gradual decline as nesting habitat disappears.
So, I was researching these kipukas (I couldn't find them for the longest time b/c I thought they were spelled kapukas or kapookas) and I found many pictures and amongst them were pictures of birds that frequent these oases. As I was browsing I came across this persons online journal of their current travels through Hawai'i. In a post from sometime in February there are some pictures of an 'Io resting in a tree. This bird really fascinated me so I started looking it up and I realized that this is the perfect animal to be the first that I share on this blog. I want to bring light to animals that are between slightly endangered to critically endangered. This is one that is in the middle. It is only found on Hawai'i, so it has a very localized population, and there are somewhere between 1,600 to 2,700 birds. That may not sound like a lot, but the population is still pretty stable since the area they inhabit is so small. The danger comes with the native ohi'a trees they nest in. These trees are where their most successful nesting occurs and they are slow growing and generally in decline. Continuing threats include forest clearance for agriculture and other developments, logging, and the actions of introduced ungulates that degrade native forests and inhibit their regeneration. The lack of information on historical numbers makes an assessment of this species difficult, and the underlying trend may be of gradual decline as nesting habitat disappears.
I was trying to find a video of the pillow lava from the Kilauea episode of Nature, but had no luck. Instead I have a video I found where the diver actually pulls at the lava as it moves through the water (they didn't do that in the Nature episode). You have to see this shit:
Also during Kilauea: Mountain of Fire Geophysicist Milton Garces uses infrasonic technology to listen in on what's happening in Kilauea's lava tubes. Best New Music 2009? You Decide:
Pahoehoe is my favorite type of lava, personally.
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