Exhibition offers rare look at Hawaii’s native forest bird

By Shane Nelson / February 08, 2016

I'iwi

Most Oahu visitors don’t get a chance to see native Hawaiian forest birds. They’re tough to spot on much of the island, and sightings in bustling, urban Waikiki are extraordinarily rare.

Starting next month, however, travelers headed to the Aloha State’s most popular tourism island can check out “Lele O Na Manu: Hawaiian Forest Birds,” a new exhibition at Honolulu’s Bishop Museum offering a comprehensive look at Hawaii’s remarkable native avian species. 

“The goal of this exhibit is to educate people about the tremendous cultural and natural resource of these unique creatures,” said Blair Collis, president and CEO of the Bishop Museum, “and to instill a call to action to help save the remaining species before they are lost forever.” 

Before the first Polynesians arrived in Hawaii, traveling onboard ocean voyaging canoes more than 1,000 years ago, the islands were home to over 110 species of birds found nowhere else on the planet, according to museum officials. Today, biologists believe the Aloha State is home for just 48 native avian species.

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‘Birds of Paradise’ at the National Geographic Museum

Walking through the “Birds of Paradise: Amazing Avian Evolution” exhibition at the National Geographic Museum can feel decidedly otherworldly.

Part of it is the backdrop: lush foliage in exotic rain forest canopies and a surrounding of dank green. But mostly it’s the birds, in all their preening excess, that make visitors feel as though they’ve landed in some groovy 1970s disco — birds with blue feet and green iridescent faces. They’ve got swirls on their backsides, which they know how to shake. They hop from foot to foot or — bam! — suddenly transform their plumage into a shape like a comet or a trippy psychedelic smile.

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2012/11/15/galapagos-islands-rats-targeted-death-save-birds/#ixzz2CUCE3V17

Folklife Center exhibits ‘Birds of America’

ELKO — Artist John James Audubon (1785 to 1851) had a dream to illustrate every bird in the United States. The Western Folklife Center is now exhibiting 20 of the 435 bird prints that he created during his lifetime.

“Explorer, Naturalist, Artist: James Audubon and The Birds of America” is an art exhibit that has been displayed in Nevada for a number of years and is stopping in Elko as part of a traveling feature.

Audubon was a French-American ornithological illustrator, an artist who diagrams birds as part of scientific research, once widely regarded by some as America’s predominant wildlife artist. He traveled the eastern and central United States from 1820 to 1838 in the hopes of capturing the natural beauty of all the country’s species of birds. The “Birds of America” series was Audubon’s most acclaimed life’s work.

The Nevada Museum of Art in Reno obtained 50 of Audubon’s first-edition “Birds of America” watercolor prints back in 2010 from the New York Historical Society. Goldcorp Inc., one of the exhibit’s sponsors, enjoyed Audubon’s paintings so much that the company wanted to share them with its employees.

Continued:  http://elkodaily.com/news/folklife-center-exhibits-birds-of-america/article_0ebc7660-05fc-11e2-94a0-001a4bcf887a.html?comment_form=true