Hawaiian Honeycreepers research – Matt Young /Nate Goldberg, Cornell University.awaii’s Finches
The Honeycreeper Project
The iconic finches of Hawai‘i are facing a conservation crisis. Non-native predators, the loss of habitat, and invasive species have negatively affected them for hundreds of years, and these issues continue to be problematic, but it’s the introduced avian malaria that is the greatest threat to their survival. Climate change leading to increased temperatures has further exacerbated the situation in the high-elevation forests, facilitating the spread of malaria into areas that were once largely free of the disease. Four Hawaiian honeycreeper species have been pushed to the edge of extinction and are in need of your help: the endangered ‘akikiki (Oreomystis bairdi) and ‘akeke‘e (Loxops caeruleirostris) on Kaua‘i Island, and kiwikiu (Pseudonestor xanthophrys) and ‘ākohekohe (Palmeria dolei) on Maui Island.
