Author: BrantaMedia.Com

_{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

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

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

In 1879, a small, rather chunky yellow-green Hawaiian honeycreeper with a thin, short bill was collected on the island of Maui, but the species was not formally described until 1893. Early naturalists referred to this bird, now known as the Maui ʻAlauahio, as a “creeper” due to its foraging style.

Like so many native Hawaiian honeycreepers such as the ʻIʻiwi and the Palila, the Maui ʻAlauahio was once abundant in many areas where it is no longer found. This range contraction was caused by the introduction of disease-bearing, non-native mosquitoes