As I mentioned in a recent post, I’ve started feeding birds in our yard many afternoons, sometimes leftover rice, sometimes stale bread, sometimes seed from a large Costco-size bag. It’s something I did as a kid, here in this same yard.
I was out there earlier this week and it suddenly hit me that the mix of birds is now very different than it was in the 1950s and 1960s.
Today, most of the birds that come down are doves, sort of evenly split between the small doves, which I’ve seen referred to as as zebra doves, and the larger, ring-neck or spotted doves. There is one pair of Brazilian cardinals, grey with the red heads. There’s a pair, possible two, of bulbuls. And there are a few mynahs, usually just three, sometimes four, that hang around in the background. We do have a single kolea, or golden plover, that visits our yard most days in the late afternoon, but doesn’t mix with the other birds.
That’s about it.
That is very different than when I was a kid.
In those days, there were many sparrows, and and lots of mynahs. Also small finches, or linnets, with colorful breast feathers. Both Brazilian and Kentucky cardinals (the ones with full red body feathers) were common. There were doves, but they were far from the dominant birds. It was also common for some mejiro, or white eyes, to flit through, checking out what was available to eat. Sometimes we would see a family of Java sparrows, with their different plumage and beaks. I think the Shama thrush, with its beautiful song, came later. We saw them relatively frequently in Kaaawa, but I don’t recall them in Kahala.
It appears that most of those are gone. I think I’ve only seen a sparrow once, and I haven’t seen a Kentucky cardinal since we moved in. Linnets? Occasionally, not often. Mynahs, which used to often congregate in groups on the lawn, are much less in evidence, although they are still raucously in evidence in the banyan trees near the Waialae Country Club.
In general, a far less diverse feathered population, at least in this part of the island.
Does the feeding location makes a difference. I’ve been putting food out in front of our house, on the street side. I wonder if moving into the back yard, more sheltered, would make a difference? Perhaps I’ll experiment.
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For a little less than a year ago, I noticed a pair of mynahs that regularly come into the driveway (Kaimuki area) and forage in the grass along with a few pigeons and doves. I started to feed them cereal when I got home from work. There were also two Brazilian Cardinals and a couple of black birds with red butts.
One day, I pulled into the driveway after work and saw the two mynahs running after the car in my rear view mirror. When I got out of the car, they were waiting for me in the middle of the driveway waiting for me to feed them. A few days later, one of the cardinals flew in front of me to make sure I saw it. It’s been doing this almost every day when it sees my car pull into the driveway.
Now there are a huge amount of doves and pigeons that mill around all day waiting for a snack. So many that the poor mynahs don’t really get to eat much. They don’t seem to like the crowd of other birds but they put up with it. I’ve watched them defend the area against other mynahs that try to come by during feeding time.. I wish I could figure out how to feed just those two mynahs.
Other than those birds, there are tiny white, grey and black birds and just a few sparrows that come by. There was also a Kolea that hung out during the summer time but I haven’t seen it since.
Bulbuls. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to bring these to Hawai’i? Horrible bullies of birds which drive out other species.
Exactly.
I live fairly close to Foster Garden. We do see or hear mynahs, but maybe not as many as before. Lots of doves small and large. Some pigeons. Cattle egrets. An occasional pair of red-vented bulbuls or red-headed cardinals. Little black-and-gray-and-white things, yes. Aukuu and ducks at the stream. Rose-ringed parakeets yelling “Hey, wait for me!” on their way past. Kolea in season. Manu-o-ku overhead.
Hardly any geckos, by the way, and no green anole for years. I suppose cats eat them, but then there’s the brown anole.
I remember the mynahs holding “court” outside my bedroom when I was growing up. Large groups of them would be arguing vociferously about some transgression. Then all of a sudden they’d come to a decision. If the verdict was to punish or oust the offender, there would be a huge crescendo of cawing as they all descended on the guilty bird, who would then flee.
I haven’t heard a court session in the last decade or two. Where have they gone?
If you are concerned about birds, dealing with the feral cat issues is your first choice of focus. Every year across the U.S., 250 to 750 birds are killed by windmills. Every year, 50 million are killed by flying into buildings.
Every year, a billion birds are killed by cats. Keep your killer house cats inside and control feral wild cats and the birds will come back.