I missed my backyard birds – my cardinals, my blues the goldfinches and the chickadees. I was glad to get back home after 10 days on the road and reconnect with my fine-feathered friends.
While in Hawaii, however, I paid extra attention to the birds on the islands. As best I can tell, there was only one bird there that I also see in my backyard – the House Sparrow.
Because Hawaii was formed by volcanoes, erupting in the middle of the Pacific, there is no species of plant, bird or animal life native to those islands, Everything was either brought here, swam here or flew here after the lava had settled.
I didn’t need a tour guide to tell me how the House Sparrows came to be Hawaiians. These little fellows are the same ones you see inside Lowe’s and Home Depot Stores and sometimes in grocery stores. They sneak into places – like ocean liners – and stay as long as there is food and water. So the House Sparrows somehow hitched a ride to Hawaii and have since prospered on all the islands.
One of the most common birds in Hawaii is the myna bird – yes, the same myna bird that can “talk”.
Myna birds are native to Asia but were imported to Hawaii to control armyworms and cutworms in sugarcane crops. As is often the case, imported species do more harm than good. Myna birds have since become a major pest in Hawaii as they have helped spread a robust weed called Lantana camera across the grasslands.
Mynas can cause considerable damage to ripening fruit, particularly grapes, but also figs, apples, pears, strawberries, blueberries, guava, mangoes and breadfruit. Cereal crops such as maize, wheat and rice are susceptible where they occur near urban areas. Roosting and nesting commensal with humans create aesthetic and health concerns. Mynas are known to carry avian malaria and exotic parasites such as a bursia mite, which can cause dermatitis in humans.
Mynas are regularly observed to usurp nests and hollows, kill the young and destroy the eggs of native bird species including seabirds and parrots.
We saw them almost always in pairs. They hang near the highways where they can feed on insects that have been smashed by cars. They say if you get a young myna bird and cut its tongue, it can be trained to talk.
The sugarcane plantations are now gone from Hawaii, but the myna birds remain, and likely will until the next volcano creates a totally new environment.