A Wandering Blog — bird

The ‘Ākepa marks the first in a series of up close and personal portrait illustrations of Hawaiian forest birds I've been illustrating. The Hawai‘i ‘ākepa is a small, endemic(found only here) Hawaiian honeycreeper. ‘Ākepa also used to be found on Maui and O‘ahu but both are likely extinct. The only remaining population is listed as Endangered and found only on the Big Island with the highest density of population along the Pua ‘Ākala tract of Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge, an area with large, older trees. Most of the current range of the Hawai‘i ‘ākepa is managed by State and Federal agencies or private...