Iiwi (Vestiaria coccinea)

The ‘I‘iwi is one of the most spectacular of extant Hawaiian birds, with vermilion plumage, black wings and tail, and long, decurved bill. In pre-European Hawai‘i, beautiful feather capes, sometimes containing hundreds of thousands of ‘I‘iwi feathers, were a symbol of power and prestige among native Hawaiians. The ‘I‘iwi is a bird of the Hawaiian forests. Its decurved bill seems well adapted to exploit nectar from the similarly shaped flowers of lobelioid plants (Campanulaceae). ‘I‘iwi and ‘Apapane (Himatione sanguinea) are well known for their long flights over the forests in search of the flowers of the ‘öhi‘a (Metrosideros polymorpha) tree, their primary food source. Probably as a consequence of their high flights, ‘I‘iwi, ‘Apapane, and ‘Ö‘ü (Psittirostra psittacea) are the only 3 species of endemic Hawaiian honeycreepers in which the same subspecies occurs on more than one island. Contemporary interisland movements have not been documented.