Rising Tide Images
Kioea Sentinel
The beautiful bristle-thighed curlew is indigenous, though uncommon, in Hawaii where it is known as kioea. This one keeps watch from the top of a headstone while several others rummage in the grass below. It has a distinctively long, decurved bill used to forage in tall grass, mud, sand, and reef flats exposed at low tide. The eponymous bristle-like feathers around the thighs are the field mark that differentiates it from the similar looking whimbrel. An annual trans-Pacific migrant summer nesting in western Alaska, it travels thousands of nonstop miles over the Pacific to spend the rest of the year on oceanic islands ranging from Hawaii to French Polynesian. Birds destined for the South Pacific overfly the Hawaiian archipelago making the kioea, along with the godwit; one of the longest nonstop migrants of any avian species. The entire worldwide population was estimated to be 10,000 individuals in 2003. Extrapolating recent counts in Tuamotu indicates the population may have declined to as little as 5,000 birds. Anecdotally, I saw more on Oahu last year (2024) than previous years.
Kioea Sentinel
The beautiful bristle-thighed curlew is indigenous, though uncommon, in Hawaii where it is known as kioea. This one keeps watch from the top of a headstone while several others rummage in the grass below. It has a distinctively long, decurved bill used to forage in tall grass, mud, sand, and reef flats exposed at low tide. The eponymous bristle-like feathers around the thighs are the field mark that differentiates it from the similar looking whimbrel. An annual trans-Pacific migrant summer nesting in western Alaska, it travels thousands of nonstop miles over the Pacific to spend the rest of the year on oceanic islands ranging from Hawaii to French Polynesian. Birds destined for the South Pacific overfly the Hawaiian archipelago making the kioea, along with the godwit; one of the longest nonstop migrants of any avian species. The entire worldwide population was estimated to be 10,000 individuals in 2003. Extrapolating recent counts in Tuamotu indicates the population may have declined to as little as 5,000 birds. Anecdotally, I saw more on Oahu last year (2024) than previous years.