LIHU‘E — Tuesday marked Hawai‘i’s first-ever Hawaiian Honeycreeper Celebration Day, a statewide holiday in honor of Hawai‘i’s forest birds and the long history of cultural practices surrounding them.
Earlier this year, several schools across the state wrote letters to the Hawai‘i Legislature, urging them to formally recognize Aug. 8 (a reference to Hawai‘i’s area code, 808) as a day to champion the state’s ecologically and culturally critical honeycreepers.
Auntie Elizabeth Sancho, a teacher at Anahola’s Kanuikapono Public Charter School and contributor to the initiative, said her students were ecstatic when they hard that the legislature had passed the day of celebration into law.
“They were so proud,” she said. “They were so proud, and they really internalized it — so proud and excited that we’ll be talking about the native birds in perpetuity.”
For weeks, the students researched i‘iwi, ‘elepaio and several other Hawaiian Honeycreepers, as well as their ecological and cultural importance. After presenting their research to the class, the students sent out a call to action, explaining why they felt the birds deserve to be recognized.
Their calls to legislators did not go unheard. In March, 25 legislators introduced House Concurrent Resolution 81 to formally recognize Hawaiian Honeycreepers Celebration Day, which quickly passed both chambers unanimously.
Sancho told The Garden Island the students’ impact was not lost on them.
“It broke down the legislative process — it made it easier to understand that you can make a difference,” she said. “Anyone can make a difference and bring awareness to something.”
Turning passion into action
Coinciding with the inaugural manu merrymaking, the Kaua‘i Forest Bird Recovery Project (KFBRP) set in motion Tuesday a plan to bolster the birds’ protections against their greatest threat — avian malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
Because avian malaria only reached Hawai‘i within the last century, evolution has provided Hawaiian Honeycreepers with little to no immunity against it, resulting in devastating mortality rates when infected.
To protect these birds against disease, KFBRP devised a plan revolving around two bacteria — Bacillus thuringiensis (sold commercially as “Dunk”) and Bacillus sphaericus. Both are harmless to humans, can be found in nature worldwide, and are widely used in organic culture and water treatment.
“I could walk through the application area as the product was being applied, and there would be no consequence to me,” said Cali Crampton, KFBRP project leader. “My dog could drink that water a minute after the bacteria has been applied, and there would be no consequence to my dog.”
But to mosquito eggs and larvae, the bacteria create a highly deadly cocktail that, when ingested, dissolves their stomach lining, killing them almost instantly.
Previously, the organization has applied the natural pesticide by hand. However, because the larvae only need about one-half inch of standing water to survive, this method required long and ineffective expeditions on foot.
To more efficiently apply the bacteria while covering more ground, the organization’s new approach focuses on aerial releases — a common practice on the U.S. mainland.
“You can imagine with the ubiquitously wet nature of the Alaka‘i plateau, there’s standing water a half inch to an inch deep in many, many, many places,” Crampton said.
“So as we fly the helicopter over this area, these bacteria will be sifting down through the air and into standing water, where if there happens to be a mosquito larva in that little tiny patch of standing water, it will ingest the bacteria.”
While Hawaiian Honeycreeper Celebration Day may have passed, the festivities are far from over.
Environmental coalition Birds, Not Mosquitoes is set to continue forest bird festivities on Saturday with a community event at Kukui Grove Center, from 9:20 a.m. to 2 p.m., that will include educational booths and interactive cultural activities, all aimed at raising awareness of the forest birds and kanaka cultural practices surrounding them.
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Jackson Healy, reporter, can be reached at 808-647-4966 or jhealy@thegardenisland.com.
