The Red-legged Honeycreeper is on average 12.2 cm long, weighs 14 g and has a medium-long black, slightly decurved, bill. Hawaiian honeycreepers are a group of birds with very unique appearances. Hawaii's equivalent of Darwin's finches is the Hawaiian honeycreepers, which branched into at least 56 species from just one or two. Living in all types of habitats on the Big Island, Maui, and Molokaʻi, this bird is one of the least affected by habitat change. All honeycreepers are small, and many have thin, downcurved bills; the tongue is … While the Crested Honeycreeper once lived on 485 square miles of terrain, spread out over two Hawaiian islands (Maui and Moloka’i), it now lives on only 5% of its former Maui territory, with no birds remaining on Moloka’i. In … Many honeycreepers feed on nectar, and some are called sugarbirds. Still, it's susceptible to threats like habitat loss and predation by cats. Males are olive-green above with bright yellow underparts and forehead, females are grayish-green above and yellowish-white below. They will use tools that represent different beaks to learn which beak is better adapted to collect different food types in … They outstrip the finches in both number and variety. Hawaiian Honeycreepers. In this episode the focus is on the evolution of Hawaiian honeycreepers and the geology of the archipelago. A pudgy, yellow honeycreeper, the Hawaiʻi ʻAmakihi needs to let all the other native forest birds of Hawaii know its secret for survival. Many honeycreepers feed on nectar, and some are called sugarbirds. Untamed Science is a science video blog. The documentary does an excellent job in describing the formation of the volcanic island chain with a brief animation showing the crossection of the Earth’s crust and the hot molten mantel. The bird is very distinct in both sound and appearance. Have you ever heard the squeaky sound of balloons rubbing together? Of Hawaii's birds, the honeycreepers (Drepanidinae) are most famous, having put on what is arguably the world's most dazzling display of adaptive radiation--an explosion of species from a single unspecialized ancestor to at least 54 species that filled available niches in the islands' habitats. SPECIES INFORMATION: The O‘ahu ‘alauahio, or O‘ahu creeper, is a small, sexually dichromatic, insectivorous Hawaiian honeycreeper (Family: Fringillidae) endemic to O‘ahu. The bird is very distinct in both sound and appearance. The most notorious is the venomous brown tree snake, Boiga irregularis. That’s what the call of the iiwi reminds me of. The Hawai‘i 'Amakihi is one of the state's most adaptable honeycreepers. Iiwi the Hawaiian honeycreeper Appearance. The Akohekohe used to live on Molokai, but it is thought to be extinct on that island.