Latest ʻIʻiwi Stories

Using one of the largest DNA data sets for a group of birds and employing next-generation sequencing methods, Smithsonian scientists and collaborators have determined the evolutionary family tree for one of the most strikingly diverse and endangered bird families in the world, the Hawaiian honeycreepers. Not only have the researchers determined the types of finches that the honeycreeper family originally evolved from, but they have also linked the timing of that rapid evolution to the...

Deadly Diseases May Move Up Hawaiian Mountains to Birds' RefugesAs climate change causes temperatures to increase in Hawaii's mountains, deadly non-native bird diseases will likely also creep up the mountains, invading most of the last disease-free refuges for honeycreepers "“ a group of endangered and remarkable birds.A just-published U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) review discusses the likelihood of a forthcoming "disease invasion" by examining the present altitudinal range of avian malaria...