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I usually quit dreaming of tropical birding trips once May arrives. The onslaught of warblers, tanagers, and flycatchers makes my regular haunts on the Great Lakes the envy of the birders who actually are in the tropics.  Still, when I hear the words Hawai’i, birds, and festival in one sentence, I stop to listen.

That’s right, the first annual Hawai’i Island Birding Festival arrives this September, along with the launch of the Hawai’i Island Coast to Coast Birding Trail (HICCBT). The trail is a 90-mile series of birding hotspots that visits Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, as well as a couple state parks and other locales on the Big Island. Touted to pass through rainforest with rainfall of nearly 25 feet annually to deserts that get only a few inches, this trail has more extreme habitat diversity than any day-trip you can find on the mainland.

It looks like Saturday’s events include a photography workshop and art workshop, followed by a gala dinner. Sunday is a birding day with van rides for a preview peak of the HICCBT followed by a Pau Hana dinner to mark the official opening of the birding trail.

A festival, a trail, and more awareness about birds are long overdue in Hawai’i. It’s no secret to the Hawaiians, but to those who haven’t visited it may be surprising to learn just how devastated the avifauna of the islands is. Development and introduction of invasive species have all played a part in the declines, the latter responsible for numerous extinctions and extirpations. The Hawaiian Honeycreepers are a family of birds endemic to the islands that have become a symbol of the devastation. Over fifty species were once abundant in the forests of Hawai’i, but more than half of those are now extinct.  The biggest culprit in this decline is likely introduced mosquitoes and the avian malaria they transmit.

The Hawaiian Petrel, or ‘u’au, is a federally endangered seabird that benefits from protected nesting sites. A population of several thousand call Haleakala National Park on Maui home. A limited number are struggling to remain on the Big Island, with most of the nests being within the confines of Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park.

Even the state bird of Hawai’i, the Hawaiian Goose, known locally as the Nene, is critically endangered, with reintroduced populations hanging on under close scrutiny. Of six endemic goose species in the islands, the Nene is the only one that still exists. It’s difficult to exaggerate the extent of the carnage the bird diversity of the Hawaiian Islands has suffered over the last three centuries.

All of that makes this the ideal time to visit and bird Hawai’i. A pessimist may say you need to get there before all the honeycreepers are gone, and that may be more accurate than we’d like to believe. On the other hand, an optimist looks to the power of a popular push for conservation. Birders and ecotravelers bring money to the region, and when they see the imperiled birds there, their minds and hearts are moved. Conservationists know that when minds and hearts are moved, the purse strings get a little looser as well. I have no doubt you’ll be prompted to give to Hawaiian bird conservation causes if you head to this festival, and that’s not a bad thing.

One interesting note about birding in Hawai’i is that it’s the only state that is not part of the American Birding Association (ABA) area. ABA big years and other birding lists do not include the Hawaiian Islands. The reasoning behind this is mostly a historical thought that the birds were so different from mainland North America, that they shouldn’t part of the biogeographical unit that the ABA area supposedly was. The fallacies in that thought are numerous, with parts of Texas and Arizona being less geographically consistent with the rest of the area than Hawai’i would be. And as far as accessibility goes, many of the popular birding destinations in the Aleutian Islands are a couple orders of magnitude more difficult to get to than Hawai’i. Regardless, Hawai’i remains an American state that isn’t part of the ABA, though the discussion to change that rule in bylaws is ongoing. It’s presumed that including it in the listing area will lead to more birders making more trips there, resulting in more awareness and more conservation efforts.

The Hawai’i Island Festival of Birds will be held the weekend of September 25-26.  For more information, visit the website, or contact festival manager Lisa Brochu at lisa@heartfeltassociates.com.