Participation on Christmas Bird Count 124 was generally good for Hawai`i, with all count circles conducted as in recent years. The same held true for Guam, but unfortunately the Northern Marianas circles were counted by not reported.
The Midway Circle in the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands turned in some record high counts for seabirds this year, specifically 50,000 Bonin Petrels, 337 Great Frigatebirds, 519 Brown Noddy, and a seasonally stray Gray-backed Tern. But more exciting was the modest, increased count of 4 Short-tailed (Steller’s) Albatross, the enormous cousin of the much-more-numerous Laysan and Black-footed albatrosses—a hopeful sign this rare species may be gaining a foothold in the Hawaiian Islands. On the Honolulu Circle, high counts of 3,143 Red-footed Boobies and 169 White Terns provided an encouraging note.
Turning to waterfowl, a low count (351) of Hawaiian Duck on the Kapa`a Circle, Kaua`i may have been the result of an outbreak of botulism in December. The three vagrant ducks of note were a Bufflehead for the Waipi`o Circle, O`ahu and two for the `Iao Circle, Maui, a Long-tailed Duck also at `Iao, and Canvasback on the Honolulu Circle.
There were some good vagrant shorebirds, too, including 3 snipe on the Waipi`o Circle, at least one of which was a Wilson’s; the Honolulu Circle’s second Red Knot ever; a Dunlin and a Least Sandpiper on the `Iao Circle; and a whopping 3 Gray-tailed Tattler on Midway.
An out-of-season Franklin’s Gull debuted at the North Kona Circle, Hawai`i Island. A Northern Harrier turned up at Kapa`a. But the most unusual bird for the entire region this year was a White Wagtail from Midway—first record for the state (amazingly, a second bird appeared briefly on O`ahu this same season). It arrived in autumn and stayed through winter, becoming a familiar bird to the residents there.
Native songbirds have been dwindling on the CBCs recently, so the detection of an `I`iwi, a sharply declining species, on the N. Kona Circle this year was unusual. Introduced species again dominate the birding news. As though not to be forgotten, feral chickens on the Lihue, Kaua`i circle amassed into an unimaginable tally of 2,759 birds. The Kapa`a CBC has been documenting the spread of Rose-ringed Parakeets there, being counted for a fourth year and high count of 19 birds. Meanwhile, a tally of 126 Red-masked Parakeets on the N. Kona Circle amounted to a high count for the Big Island. This year, Rosy-faced Lovebirds descending from the Kohala districts into North Kona appeared on the CBC for the first time with a count of 9 birds. Common Waxbills, reported from Kapa`a Circle for a third year, scored a high count of 5. On O`ahu, the Waipi`o Circle reported both a high and a low: a high count of 18 Yellow-fronted Canaries probably expanding their population in central part of the island, and a low count of only 2 Scaly-breasted Munia, the first estrildid finch introduced to Hawai`i and now up against multiple species of new-comer finches.