Iiwi
Encyclopedia
The Iiwi or Scarlet Hawaiian Honeycreeper (Vestiaria coccinea) is a Hawaii
an "hummingbird-niched" species, of the Hawaiian honeycreeper
s, subfamily
, Drepanidinae, and the only member
of the genus Vestiaria. It is one of the most plentiful species of this family, many of which are endangered
or extinct
, the iiwi is a highly recognizable symbol of Hawaii. The iiwi is the third most common native land bird in the Hawaiian Islands. There are large colonies of iiwi on the islands of Hawaii
and Kauai
, and smaller colonies on Molokai
and Oahu
; iiwi were extirpated
from Lānai
in 1929. Altogether, the remaining populations add up to a total of 350,000 birds. It is currently decreasing.
The adult iiwi is mostly fiery red, with black wings and tail and a long, curved, salmon-colored bill used primarily for drinking
nectar. The contrast of the red and black plumage with surrounding green foliage makes the iiwi one of the most easily seen Hawaiian birds. Younger birds have a more spotted golden plumage and ivory bills and were mistaken for a different species by early naturalists on Hawaii. The iiwi, even though it was used in the feather trade, was less affected than the Hawai'i mamo
because the iiwi was not as sacred to the Hawaiians. The iiwis feathers were highly prized by Hawaiian alii
(nobility
) for use in decorating ahuula (feather cloak
s) and mahiole
(feathered helmets), and such uses gave the species its scientific name
: vestiaria, which comes from the Latin
for clothing, and coccinea means scarlet-colored. The bird is also often mentioned in Hawaiian folklore. The Hawaiian song "Sweet Lei Mamo" includes the line "The i'iwi bird, too, is a friend". The bird is capable of hovering in the air, much like hummingbird
s. Its peculiar song consists of a couple of whistles, the sound of balls dropping in water, the rubbing of balloons together, and the squeaking of a rusty hinge.
nectar from the flower
s of the Hawaiian lobelioids
, which have decurved corollas. Since 1902, the lobelioid population has declined dramatically, and the diet of the iiwi shifted to nectar from the blossoms of ōhia lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha
) trees. Iiwi also eat small arthropod
s.
in a small cup shaped nest made from tree fibers, petals, and down feather
s. These bluish eggs hatch in fourteen days. The chicks are yellowish-green marked with brownish-orange. The chicks fledge
in twenty-four days and soon attain adult plumage. At one time the difference in appearance between adults and young gave rise to the belief that they were separate species. Observations of young birds moulting into adult plumage resolved this confusion.
, a migratory bird. The long decurved bill of the curlew somewhat resembles that of the Iiwi.
and Molokai
and no longer found on Lānai
. Most of the decline is blamed on loss of habitat, as native forests are cleared for farming, grazing, and development. Even though it is still plentiful in two parts of its range, it is still listed as a threatened species because of small populations in some of its range and susceptibility to fowlpox
and avian influenza. In fact a study has shown that ninety percent of all exposed Iiwi die and the other ten percent were weakened but survived. However scientists have been helping restore the island ecosystem by removing alien or non-native species of plants and animals from critical habitat. Many of these so called removal projects have been done on the Big Island of Hawaii, where efforts continue around Mauna Kea
. Populations of lobelia species have declined over the years and because of this the birds are increasingly being found at ōhia trees.
Another threat has been the spread of introduced diseases, particularly avian malaria
(Plasmodium relictum), which is spread by mosquito
es. In a series of challenge experiments involving avian malaria, more than half of the Iiwi tested died from a single infected mosquito bite. Thus the Iiwi generally survives at higher elevations where temperatures are too cool for mosquitoes, and like many disease-susceptible endemic birds is rare to absent at lower elevations, even in relatively intact native forest. The Iiwi were also removed when the islands forests were cut down and were replaced with farms, plantations, towns, and alien forests. These birds are altitudinal migrants; they follow the growth of flowers as they go from high elevation to low elevation forests. It is thus exposed to harmful low elevation disease organisms and high mortality This migration also makes it hard to assess the total populations on the islands. The birds are able to migrate between islands and it is because of this that the Iiwi has not gone extinct on smaller islands such as Molokai.
On Molokai
, The Nature Conservancy
has attempted to preserve habitat by fencing off areas within several nature reserves to keep out pig populations. The pigs create wallows which serve as incubator sites for mosquito larvae, which in turn spread avian malaria.
It was formerly classified as a Near Threatened
species by the IUCN, but recent research has proven that it was rarer than previously believed. Consequently, it was uplisted to Vulnerable
status in 2008.
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
an "hummingbird-niched" species, of the Hawaiian honeycreeper
Hawaiian honeycreeper
Hawaiian honeycreepers are small, passerine birds endemic to Hawaii. Some authorities still categorize this group as a family Drepanididae, but in recent years, most authorities consider them a subfamily, Drepanidinae, of Fringillidae, the finch family...
s, subfamily
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
, Drepanidinae, and the only member
Monotypic
In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group with only one biological type. The term's usage differs slightly between botany and zoology. The term monotypic has a separate use in conservation biology, monotypic habitat, regarding species habitat conversion eliminating biodiversity and...
of the genus Vestiaria. It is one of the most plentiful species of this family, many of which are endangered
Endangered species
An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...
or extinct
Extinction
In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...
, the iiwi is a highly recognizable symbol of Hawaii. The iiwi is the third most common native land bird in the Hawaiian Islands. There are large colonies of iiwi on the islands of Hawaii
Hawaii (island)
The Island of Hawaii, also called the Big Island or Hawaii Island , is a volcanic island in the North Pacific Ocean...
and Kauai
Kauai
Kauai or Kauai, known as Tauai in the ancient Kaua'i dialect, is geologically the oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands. With an area of , it is the fourth largest of the main islands in the Hawaiian archipelago, and the 21st largest island in the United States. Known also as the "Garden Isle",...
, and smaller colonies on Molokai
Molokai
Molokai or Molokai is an island in the Hawaiian archipelago. It is 38 by 10 miles in size with a land area of , making it the fifth largest of the main Hawaiian Islands and the 27th largest island in the United States. It lies east of Oahu across the 25-mile wide Kaiwi Channel and north of...
and Oahu
Oahu
Oahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...
; iiwi were extirpated
Local extinction
Local extinction, also known as extirpation, is the condition of a species which ceases to exist in the chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere...
from Lānai
Lanai
Lānai or Lanai is the sixth-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is also known as the Pineapple Island because of its past as an island-wide pineapple plantation. The only town is Lānai City, a small settlement....
in 1929. Altogether, the remaining populations add up to a total of 350,000 birds. It is currently decreasing.
Description and uses
Nectarivore
In zoology, nectarivore is an animal which eats the sugar-rich nectar produced by flowering plants. Most nectarivores are insects or birds, but there are also nectarivorous mammals, notably several species of bats in the Southwestern United States and Mexico, as well as the Australian Honey Possum...
nectar. The contrast of the red and black plumage with surrounding green foliage makes the iiwi one of the most easily seen Hawaiian birds. Younger birds have a more spotted golden plumage and ivory bills and were mistaken for a different species by early naturalists on Hawaii. The iiwi, even though it was used in the feather trade, was less affected than the Hawai'i mamo
Hawai'i Mamo
The Hawai'i Mamo was a species of finch in the Hawaiian honeycreeper subfamily, Drepanididae. It was endemic to Hawaii. It became extinct due to habitat loss and overcollecting.-Description:...
because the iiwi was not as sacred to the Hawaiians. The iiwis feathers were highly prized by Hawaiian alii
Ali'i
Alii is a word in the Polynesian language denoting chiefly status in ancient Hawaii and the Samoa Islands. A similar word with the same concept is found in other Polynesian societies. In the Cook Islands, an ariki is a high chief and the House of Ariki is a parliamentary house...
(nobility
Nobility
Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...
) for use in decorating ahuula (feather cloak
Feather cloak
Featherwork cloaks have been used by several cultures.-Hawaii:Elaborate feather cloaks called [[ʻahuʻula]] were created by early Hawaiians for the alii .Feathers were also used in women's skirts called pāū....
s) and mahiole
Mahiole
Hawaiian feather helmets, known as mahiole in the Hawaiian language, were worn with [[ʻahuʻula | feather cloaks (ʻahu ʻula)]]. These were symbols of the highest rank reserved for the men of the alii, the chiefly class of Hawaii. There are examples of this traditional headgear in museums around the...
(feathered helmets), and such uses gave the species its scientific name
Binomial nomenclature
Binomial nomenclature is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, although they can be based on words from other languages...
: vestiaria, which comes from the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
for clothing, and coccinea means scarlet-colored. The bird is also often mentioned in Hawaiian folklore. The Hawaiian song "Sweet Lei Mamo" includes the line "The i'iwi bird, too, is a friend". The bird is capable of hovering in the air, much like hummingbird
Hummingbird
Hummingbirds are birds that comprise the family Trochilidae. They are among the smallest of birds, most species measuring in the 7.5–13 cm range. Indeed, the smallest extant bird species is a hummingbird, the 5-cm Bee Hummingbird. They can hover in mid-air by rapidly flapping their wings...
s. Its peculiar song consists of a couple of whistles, the sound of balls dropping in water, the rubbing of balloons together, and the squeaking of a rusty hinge.
Diet
The long bill of the iiwi assists it to extractNectarivore
In zoology, nectarivore is an animal which eats the sugar-rich nectar produced by flowering plants. Most nectarivores are insects or birds, but there are also nectarivorous mammals, notably several species of bats in the Southwestern United States and Mexico, as well as the Australian Honey Possum...
nectar from the flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s of the Hawaiian lobelioids
Hawaiian lobelioids
The Hawaiian lobelioids are a group of flowering plants in the bellflower family, Campanulaceae, all of which are endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. This is the largest plant radiation in the Hawaiian Islands, and indeed the largest on any island archipelago, with over 125 species...
, which have decurved corollas. Since 1902, the lobelioid population has declined dramatically, and the diet of the iiwi shifted to nectar from the blossoms of ōhia lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha
Metrosideros polymorpha
The ōhia lehua is a species of flowering evergreen tree in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, that is endemic to the six largest islands of Hawaii. It is a highly variable tree, being tall in favorable situations, and much smaller when growing in boggy soils or on basalt...
) trees. Iiwi also eat small arthropod
Arthropod
An arthropod is an invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton , a segmented body, and jointed appendages. Arthropods are members of the phylum Arthropoda , and include the insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and others...
s.
Breeding
In the early winter in January to June, the birds pair off and mate as the ōhia plants reach their flowering maximum. The female lays two to three eggsEgg (biology)
An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing...
in a small cup shaped nest made from tree fibers, petals, and down feather
Down feather
The down of birds is a layer of fine feathers found under the tougher exterior feathers. Very young birds are clad only in down. Powder down is a specialized type of down found only in a few groups of birds. Down is a fine thermal insulator and padding, used in goods such as jackets, bedding,...
s. These bluish eggs hatch in fourteen days. The chicks are yellowish-green marked with brownish-orange. The chicks fledge
Fledge
Fledge is the stage in a young bird's life when the feathers and wing muscles are sufficiently developed for flight. It also describes the act of a chick's parents raising it to a fully grown state...
in twenty-four days and soon attain adult plumage. At one time the difference in appearance between adults and young gave rise to the belief that they were separate species. Observations of young birds moulting into adult plumage resolved this confusion.
Etymology
Linguists derive the Hawaiian language word Iiwi from Proto-Nuclear Polynesian *kiwi, which in central Polynesia refers to Numenius tahitiensis, the Bristle-thighed CurlewBristle-thighed Curlew
The Bristle-thighed Curlew, Numenius tahitiensis, is a large shorebird that breeds in Alaska and winters on tropical Pacific islands. It has a long, decurved bill and bristled feathers at the base of the legs. Its length is about 43 cm and wingspan about 84 cm...
, a migratory bird. The long decurved bill of the curlew somewhat resembles that of the Iiwi.
Threats and conservation
Although Iiwi are still fairly common on most of the Hawaiian islands, it is rare on OahuOahu
Oahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...
and Molokai
Molokai
Molokai or Molokai is an island in the Hawaiian archipelago. It is 38 by 10 miles in size with a land area of , making it the fifth largest of the main Hawaiian Islands and the 27th largest island in the United States. It lies east of Oahu across the 25-mile wide Kaiwi Channel and north of...
and no longer found on Lānai
Lanai
Lānai or Lanai is the sixth-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is also known as the Pineapple Island because of its past as an island-wide pineapple plantation. The only town is Lānai City, a small settlement....
. Most of the decline is blamed on loss of habitat, as native forests are cleared for farming, grazing, and development. Even though it is still plentiful in two parts of its range, it is still listed as a threatened species because of small populations in some of its range and susceptibility to fowlpox
Fowlpox
Fowlpox is a worldwide disease of poultry caused by viruses of the family Poxviridae and the genus Avipoxvirus. The viruses causing fowlpox are distinct from one another but antigenically similar, possible hosts including chickens, turkeys, quail, canaries, pigeons, and many other species of...
and avian influenza. In fact a study has shown that ninety percent of all exposed Iiwi die and the other ten percent were weakened but survived. However scientists have been helping restore the island ecosystem by removing alien or non-native species of plants and animals from critical habitat. Many of these so called removal projects have been done on the Big Island of Hawaii, where efforts continue around Mauna Kea
Mauna Kea
Mauna Kea is a volcano on the island of Hawaii. Standing above sea level, its peak is the highest point in the state of Hawaii. However, much of the mountain is under water; when measured from its oceanic base, Mauna Kea is over tall—significantly taller than Mount Everest...
. Populations of lobelia species have declined over the years and because of this the birds are increasingly being found at ōhia trees.
Another threat has been the spread of introduced diseases, particularly avian malaria
Avian malaria
Avian malaria is a parasitic disease of birds.-Etiology:Avian malaria is most notably caused by Plasmodium relictum, a protist that infects birds in tropical regions...
(Plasmodium relictum), which is spread by mosquito
Mosquito
Mosquitoes are members of a family of nematocerid flies: the Culicidae . The word Mosquito is from the Spanish and Portuguese for little fly...
es. In a series of challenge experiments involving avian malaria, more than half of the Iiwi tested died from a single infected mosquito bite. Thus the Iiwi generally survives at higher elevations where temperatures are too cool for mosquitoes, and like many disease-susceptible endemic birds is rare to absent at lower elevations, even in relatively intact native forest. The Iiwi were also removed when the islands forests were cut down and were replaced with farms, plantations, towns, and alien forests. These birds are altitudinal migrants; they follow the growth of flowers as they go from high elevation to low elevation forests. It is thus exposed to harmful low elevation disease organisms and high mortality This migration also makes it hard to assess the total populations on the islands. The birds are able to migrate between islands and it is because of this that the Iiwi has not gone extinct on smaller islands such as Molokai.
On Molokai
Molokai
Molokai or Molokai is an island in the Hawaiian archipelago. It is 38 by 10 miles in size with a land area of , making it the fifth largest of the main Hawaiian Islands and the 27th largest island in the United States. It lies east of Oahu across the 25-mile wide Kaiwi Channel and north of...
, The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy is a US charitable environmental organization that works to preserve the plants, animals, and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive....
has attempted to preserve habitat by fencing off areas within several nature reserves to keep out pig populations. The pigs create wallows which serve as incubator sites for mosquito larvae, which in turn spread avian malaria.
It was formerly classified as a Near Threatened
Near Threatened
Near Threatened is a conservation status assigned to species or lower taxa that may be considered threatened with extinction in the near future, although it does not currently qualify for the threatened status...
species by the IUCN, but recent research has proven that it was rarer than previously believed. Consequently, it was uplisted to Vulnerable
Vulnerable species
On 30 January 2010, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species identified 9694 Vulnerable species, subspecies and varieties, stocks and sub-populations.-References:...
status in 2008.
External links
- BirdLife Species Factsheet.
- videos, photos & sounds on the Internet Bird Collection
- http://www.aloha-hawaii.com/hawaii/iiwi+honeycreeper/ Extra information on the Iiwi
- http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/JFO/v064n02/p0262-p0269.html How to find the age of a Iiwi
- http://www.tammyyee.com/tt-iiwi.html Turtle Talk about the Iiwi
- http://www.state.hi.us/dlnr/dofaw/cwcs/files/NAAT%20final%20CWCS/Chapters/Terrestrial%20Fact%20Sheets/Forest%20Birds/iiwi%20NAAT%20final%20!.pdf I'iwi populations and more.