VOLCANO – Students across Hawaii are being offered rare access to learn about endangered Hawaiian forest birds.
The Keauhou Bird Conservation Center near Volcano is one of two centers operated through a partnership between San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife, for the care and perpetuation of numerous critically endangered Hawaiian forest birds.
During this “Year of the Forest Birds” (ka Makahiki o Na Manu Nahele), the focus is on five species that are really in trouble. One way to spread information and to educate keiki is through the production of what is known as a virtual field trip: a collection of 360-degree images, videos and interviews that allow students to learn about places and species they might not get to see in person.
Josh Atwood, DOFAW information and education specialist, is producing the latest field trip, as well as several others over the past four years.
“We really started this program during COVID, thinking people were unable to get out of their classrooms and to see different places around Hawaii,” Atwood said in a press release.
He explained that after the pandemic, virtual field trips remained a good educational tool because not everyone can visit ecologically sensitive places like KBCC in person. Other entries in the virtual field trip program include visits to closed areas like the laboratory for the Snail Extinction Prevention Program or the site of Kamehameha III’s summer palace at Kaniakapupu, where in-person classroom visits would not be possible.
The virtual field trips can be viewed here: https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/dofaw/education/virtual/.
“With a virtual field trip, a class anywhere in Hawaii can experience the center and develop an appreciation for the state’s forest birds,” Atwood said.
In late February, armed with a collection of cameras and technology, Atwood worked with the “host” of the KBCC virtual field trip, wildlife care supervisor Lisa Mason. First standing outside the facility, Atwood records Mason as she delivers her introduction. “On your field trip today, you’ll get to see our facility and some of the birds who call this center their home. ‘Alala, Palila, ‘Akikiki, ‘Akeke‘e, and Kiwikiu,” she says into the camera.
“By putting a tour into a virtual format, it not only makes it available to a broader number of classrooms, but students can explore it at their own pace. It’s a great way to have something that would be good in-person and enhance it by having it as a virtual field trip experience,” Atwood said.
Once inside the center, taping continues, first in the center’s “keiki corner” surrounded by a floor-to-ceiling mural of forest birds, gifted by local artist Kathleen Kam. “Here on this mural, you can see many of the birds that live across our islands, represented in their native habitats,” Mason said.
She and the cameras then moved into the library which features the second part of the mural. It’s dedicated to the native Hawaiian crow (‘Alala), which viewers will see in real life, once the shades are raised. In addition to ecological education, the virtual field trip also addresses the importance of forest birds and culture.
Mason said, “To Kanaka Maoli, our native Hawaiian birds are very important to us. They have many roles in the forest as forest engineers. They help to pollinate plants and to spread seeds to regenerate forests.”