Elepaio Birds
Endangered species of Hawaii
Description
- Elepaio are birds of Hawaii,
- covered with brown and white feathers with a white rump and white bars on dark wings.
- Weight: 12-18g, height: 5 inches.
- Live for only 12 years.
- They communicates through bird calling.
- Special feature: they help canoe builders choose the right tree for canoes.
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Food Chain
- Elepaio birds are omnivores.
- Consume on plant species and small insects like spiders.
- They find food in leaf litter or along branches of ohia trees.
- Preys of the black rats and other animals, predator of insects
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Habitat
- The elepaio birds inhabited most forested areas from sea level to tree line on Hawaii, Kauai, and Oahu.
- They live under the climate of tropical, or wet.
- Built nests, held together by spider webs, in the ohia or other trees. Nesting are about from January to August, depending on population.
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Adaptation
- Elepaio birds use their wings to escape their predators.
- They uses plucking and hawking to get food.
- Use their feet to hold down large insects while they tear off the wings with their bill.
- Catch insects in the air like a flycatcher, they glean off leaves like a warbler.
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Critical
- The Elepaio bird is listed as an Vulnerable species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the State of Hawaii.
- -Habitat loss due to urbanization and agriculture caused range reductions in the past
- Their population had been declined be 96% since the arrival of humans, and 75% declined since 1975.
- There are only about 2000 of them left in Hawaii.
REASONS FOR ENDANGERMENT
- Predators
- Nest Predation from black rats
- Storms/ Heavy rainfalls, destroying their nests.
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Citation
"Hawaiian Elepaio." Flickr. N.p.. Web. 12 Apr 2013. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigoni/8359659251/
"Elepaio birds pictures." Flickr. N.p.. Web. 12 Apr 2013. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/maholyoak/5850681572>.
"Breakfast on the porch of our tropical treehouse.”Flickr N.p.. Web. 12 Apr 2013. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/mezzaninerex/6437024123/>.
"Forest floor." Flickr. N.p.. Web. 21 Apr 2013. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenai/3396137681/>.
“Elepaio." Arkive. N.p.. Web. 21 Apr 2013. <http://www.arkive.org/elepaio/chasiempis-sandwichensis/>.
"Elepaio birds research." Native birds of Hawaii. N.p.. Web. 21 Apr 2013. <http://www.state.hi.us/dlnr/consrvhi/forestbirds/elepaio.html>.
"Elepaio." Youtube. N.p.. Web. 22 Apr 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7RJOZOMfL1U>.