'akiapola'au - a photo on Flickriver

'akiapola'au

            Pu'u O'oTrail, Hawaii

The 'Akiapola'au, or Aki for short, is another of the highly endangered honeycreepers of Hawaii, and a very special bird.  The Aki has evolved to occupy the woodpecker niche, and as you can see has a very unique and interesting bill.  The lower half of the bill is used as a pecking and crushing tool, while the top half can be used as a prying tool to peel back bark and to probe.  The bill is flexible and the Aki can actually use the bill as pincers and can pull the tips of both halves of the bill together.

We first saw this very cool bird while at the Hakalau Reserve, with our guide Jack Jeffrey.  The two Aki that we saw and photographed there were pretty high up in the trees and very backlit.  Jack suggested that we might find an Aki in one of the Kipuka along the Pu'u O'o Trail, and indeed we did find one there, on much shorter Koa trees, on our third try.

I had to crop these pretty tight because the shots were tricky ones through a dense stand of small trees.

Taken on: November 13, 2013

Tags:

Hemignathus munroi

Pu'u O'o Trail, Hawaii

'Akiapola'au

FBW:NewBird

Hemignathus wilsoni « less

Sets appears in: • World Life List • Photos Published or Used on Websites more » • aba list , work in progress • Hawaii 2013 • Hawaii • 2013 Birds • for Tom • Some personal faves « less

Groups appears in: • Field Guide: Birds of the World • Hawaiian Birds more » • Birdshare • Hawaii's Wildlife • Birds of the world/ Oiseaux du monde « less

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark III, f/6.3, 1/1000 sec, 700mm, ISO 1250 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Aperture:	f/6.3
Exposure Time:	0.001 sec (1/1000)
Focal Length:	700mm
ISO:	1250
Exposure Bias:	+2/3 EV
Flash:	On, Fired
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)
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