ʻAlawī (Hawaiʻi Creeper): A New Old Name

_{This YouTube video was produced by the American Bird Conservancy.}

The ʻAlawī is a small, inconspicuous Hawaiian honeycreeper, so unassuming in appearance that the first scientists who collected it didn’t even realize that this bird was a unique species. Researchers only made the connection between the Hawaiian name “ʻAlawī” and the bird described as the Hawaiʻi Creeper in 2017. The Kumulipo, the Hawaiian cosmological and genealogical chant, mentions the ʻAlawī as a “child” of the ʻAlalā (Hawaiian Crow), and other traditional Hawaiian epics refer to it as a small, quick bird.

While the ʻAlawī may lack the bright colors or unusual bill shapes or features of other native Hawaiian birds, this little honeycreeper is equally as interesting. It occupies an ecological niche similar to that occupied by species such as the Brown Creeper and White-breasted Nuthatch, creeping up, down, and even upside-down along native trees as it uses its short, sharp beak to carefully probe for prey.

Learn more about the ʻAlawī at https://abcbirds.org/bird/alawi/