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Also known as the Maui Parrotbill.
From the series of thirty-three prints, Living Endemic Birds of Hawaii, by Marian Berger.
From www.mauiforestbirds.org: Kiwikiu or Maui Parrotbill use their large parrot-like beaks to split branches and to extract insect larvae, their primary prey. Adult Parrotbill are 5 to 6 inches long, olive-green above and yellow below, and have short tails and distinctive yellow eye-stripes. Females tend to be duller in color and have smaller bills than males. Immatures are greyish-olive above and pale yellow below with whitish eye-stripes. Endangered: now, only about 500 Parrotbills are estimated to exist."
The Kiwikiu is found in koa and ohi'a forests on the slopes of Haleakala Volcano on the island of Maui. It is the only Hawaiian honeycreeper that has a sturdy, parrot-like bill designed to rip bark off dead and dying trees in search of insect larvae to eat. The HEBCP began working with this endangered species in 1997, and is making progress in slowly building a captive flock. Recovery for Kiwikiu in the wild will require establishing new pockets of self-sustaining populations in the higher montane forests of eastern Maui.
Copyright Marian Berger. All rights reserved; images are protected under US copyright laws and may not be copied or reproduced in any manner.