Evening roosting flights of the honeycreepers Himatione sanguinea and Vestiaria coccinea on Hawaii
- Author:
-
MacMillen, Richard E.
- Title:
- Evening roosting flights of the honeycreepers Himatione sanguinea and Vestiaria coccinea on Hawaii
- Periodical:
- Auk
- Year:
- 1980
- Volume:
- 97
- Pages:
- 28-37
- Subject:
-
Apapane
Iiwi
Metrosideros collina
Honeycreepers
- Summary:
- Although common in flocking birds, the use of communal roosting areas by solitary feeding birds has been documented in many species and several orders. In this paper, the behavior of the Hawaiian honeycreepers, (Himatione sanguinea and Vestiaria coccinea), is described and interpreted as these birds regularly made evening flights in mixed flocks above Metrosideros forest canopy during summer months. All of the observations were made between 1972 and 1978, (but particularly during the summer months of 1974), and were done on the Keauhou Ranch in the Kau District that is located on the east flank of Mauna Loa on the island of Hawaii. During the investigations of the energetic and community relationships of certain honeycreepers, (Drepanididae), and the forest tree, Metrosideros collina, (Myrtaceae), loosely knit mixed flocks of Apapane, (Himatione sanguinea) and Iiwi, (Vestiaria coccinea), were regularly observed flying unidirectionally on summer evenings. In addition, it was observed that the lines of flight of these flocks converged on a common area along the slopes between 1,350 and 1,850 m on the east flank of Mauna Loa when extrapolated. These observations suggested the presence of an unusual kind of flocking behavior and the likely use of a common roosting area by these otherwise solitary-foraging, nectar-feeding birds.
- Label:
- Birds - General
- URL:
- https://sora.unm.edu/node/23371
- Collection:
- Periodicals