Birding the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge

The Big Island is one of the best for birding and we are not going to miss out! We have scheduled a tour in to the refuge with Hawaii Forest and Trail. The refuge is only accessible with a special permit and 4x4 vehicle. We are going with a naturalist to help us identify some of Hawaii's endemic birds. Endemic birds are those that are only found in one geography, so Hawaii's endemics are only found in the Hawaiian Islands and most are endangered.

This trip is going to be pretty hardcore. We meet at 6 am and drive 3 hours into the mountain, to go on a 4 hour jungle hike. I couldn't be more excited.

This is a map of where we are going:


This will not be the first trip of this type that we have arranged while traveling, but frustratingly the other 2 we have arranged were cancelled and we were left to bird on our own. We saw some birds, but never anything as good as what we can see on a trip like this. SO. This time I've got a plan B in place, I've been in contact with a local naturalist who can at least take us near the site if the trip falls through.