The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Hawaiian Honeycreepers

(Drepanididae), a family of birds of the order Passeriformes. The body is 11-21 cm long. Hawaiian honeycreepers are greenish, yellow, red, or black. All of them have a musky smell. The birds are a remarkable example of adaptive radiation within one family: in correlation with their predominant food (nectar and flower pollen, insects, or seeds), some species of Hawaiian honeycreepers have a thin, curved beak, others have an awllike beak, and still others have a massive beak like a parrot’s. The birds are found in trees and shrubs. There are 21 species, found only on the Hawaiian Islands.

REFERENCE

Baldwin, P. H. “Annual Cycle, Environment and Evolution in the Hawaiian Honeycreepers.” University of California Publications in Zoology, 1953, vol. 52, pp. 285-398.

Mentioned in

Island Fauna

References in periodicals archive

The flowers of the 'ohi'a lehua are favored by many species of the spectacularly diverse honeycreepers. Historically, the islands supported at least 51 species of Hawaiian honeycreepers.

Wildlands for wildlife: working to protect and restore forest habitat for at-risk wildlife across the United States

There are myriad 'i'iwi, a long-billed red honeycreeper whose cry (ee-ee-we) sounds like a rusty gate, and I hear the whistling song of another endemic, the 'elepaio, which is everywhere as I train my binoculars on--wait, is that the smallest of the endemic honeycreepers, the 'anianiau?

Birds of paradise

Not only did the researchers determine the types of finches that the honeycreeper family originally evolved from, but also linked the timing of that rapid evolution to the formation of the four main Hawaiian Islands.

Scientists determine family tree of world's most endangered bird species

Some of the species in question that will get a closer look--and which CBD hopes are "fast-tracked" for protection--include the walrus, the wolverine, the Mexican gray wolf, the New England cottontail rabbit, three species of sage grouse, the scarlet Hawaiian honeycreeper ('I'iwi), the California golden trout, the Rio Grande cutthroat trout and the Miami blue butterfly, among others.

Dear EarthTalk: what's the gist of the recent agreement between the Center for Biological Diversity and the federal government regarding adding many more plants and animals to the Endangered Species List?

the bird (Loxioides bailleui), a member of the Hawaiian honeycreeper family, also has legal status and wings its way into federal court as a plaintiff in its own right.

The scope of "plaintiffs' harm" in environmental preliminary injunctions

She's also a photographer; you can see some of her work at honeycreeper.com.

The creative hornist off the beaten path: tales of creative hornists, Part I

1976: Threshold model of feeding territoriality and test with a Hawaiian honeycreeper.--Science 194: 639-642.

Home-range size and spatial organization of black-footed ferrets Mustela nigripes in South Dakota, USA

(230) Along these lines, the Ninth Circuit has stated that the palila, a member of the endangered honeycreeper family, has the legal capacity to "wing[] its way into federal court as a plaintiff in its own right." (231) This language has since been superseded by later cases, and dismissed as mere rhetorical flourish.

"If an (endangered) tree falls in the forest, and no one is around ....": resolving the divergence between standing requirements and congressional intent in environmental legislation

One example is the po'ouli (Melamprosops phaeosoma), a Hawaiian honeycreeper. This forest bird species has not been seen since 2004, and biologists do not know if it survives.

Hawaiian Petrel faces uncertain future

Regent honeycreeper - hard-to-spot speckled bird, the size of a thrush.

World tour is one for the birds

Already, 21 species have been lost, according to BirdLife, from the Hawaiian honeycreeper Poo-uli to Brazil's Spixs Macaw.

Saving the world's most endangered birds

Some of the birds found nowhere else on Earth that inhabit the Big Island include the pueo (the Hawai'ian owl), 'lo (Hawai'ian hawk), oma'o (Hawai'ian thrush), 'apapane (Hawai'ian honeycreeper) and nene (Hawai'ian goose).

Walking on fire