Wildlife At Kealia Pond
‘Auku‘u
The Black-crowned Night Heron
Our group researched the ‘Auku‘u also known as the black-crowned night heron. We looked for information on their appearance, behavior and habitat.
The black-crowned night heron has a long pointed bill that seems to extend through its eyes with stick like legs and a narrow head with a slender neck. It has a short tail, medium sized short neck with a thick black bill. It also has a black cap and back while its wings are white and under them are white. It grows to about 58-66 cm and its wingspan is 115-118 cm wide. The female is slightly smaller. It has very sharp eyesight and its tail, legs and talons are pinkish red and yellow. Young black-crowned night herons have brown wings that are spotted with white. The bill is mostly yellow. It also has short red eyes.
The black-crowned night heron eats mostly fish, frogs, mussels, squid, lizards, Hawaiian snakes, leeches, earthworms, insects and rodents. The black-crowned night heron usually eats at marshes, ponds, streams, and seashores The black-crowned night heron eats after the sun sets and before dawn. The black-crowned night heron hunts by standing still and waiting to spear a fish with its long beak. Their breeding season is between April and August.
The black-crowned night heron talks to other birds by making a very loud squawk. When it is flying it stretches its legs straight out behind it and curls its head between its shoulders.
Black-crowned night heron live near brackish water. Their nest is built out of many loose sticks. They can be mostly be found in Mexico, but are also found in the Southern United States and the West Indies.
Our group enjoyed researching the black-crowned night heron. We also enjoyed watching them at Kealia Pond. When we were there we saw six herons. They were very cool to watch.
‘Alae ke‘o ke‘o
Hawaiian Coot
Our group studied the Hawaiian coot. ‘Alae ke‘o ke‘o is its Hawaiian name. We looked for information on the appearance, behavior and habitat of the coot.
The coot can grow 13 to 23 inches tall. The coot is dark gray and has a large frontal shield. Their frontal shield is white and then it turns blue, then yellow, then red as they get older. Their under tail feathers are white. The male and female look alike because their frontal shields are both white and their bodies are both dark gray. The coot is an endangered species.
The coot eats snails, worms, water insects, small fish, tadpoles, algae, seeds, leaves and roots of other water plants. The sound the Hawaiian coot makes sounds like “bittida ba”. It dives down into the water sometimes and comes back in a circle. Coots like to swim in the water a lot and that’s why most of them are on water. They are great swimmers.
The coot live in fresh water marshes. The coot build their nests from dead plants of any kind. The coot live in the water. They barely spend any time on the ground. The coot find their food on the ground and in the water or on plants in the water. The coot live in brackish water.
We enjoyed studying the coot. We saw a lot of coots at Kealia Pond. It was the second most common bird seen on our field trip. We think that the number of coots have gone up over the past years because there has been more water at the pond and the coots are water birds.
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