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Hawaiis state bird

Continuing the Taro theme, here is a Hawaiian Goose (Branta sandvicensis) in front of a taro field. Like I mentioned in my previous shot the taro fields actually provide habitat for a variety of endemic birds. The Hawaiian name for this species is the Nene which is derived from the birds soft call. The Nene is now also Hawaiis state bird. Those of you familiar with Canada geese can no doubt see the resemblance and its hard to imagine that a bird resembling a canada goose is rare because as I'm sure many of you know Canada geese are overly abundant in many places. The resemblance isn't accidental the Hawaiian goose evolved from Canada geese which arrived on the main island 500,000 years or so ago.

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Uploaded on December 14, 2010
Taken on December 2, 2010