Bird Silence
Eight Hawaiian birds delisted from the Endangered Species Act and declared extinct on October 16, 2023.
Forests of the Hawaiian islands are quiet today
for eight distinct extinct songs have all died away.
Their disappearances have broken the biological sound of “sacred lands.”
The yellow-brown-gray Kauaʻi nukupuʻu,
hidden high in the peak of leaves
with a high pitch, is gone.
And the green-gray, olive-yellow Kauaʻi ʻakialoa,
with its long beak to drink nectar
and chirp a less known melody, does not live on.
No tiny black Kauaʻi ʻōʻō bird answered
her mate’s last mating call
during the break of dawn.
The black-brown-gray kāmaʻo, large Kaua‘i thrush,
cannot sing its liquid-warbled croon.
Nor the Maui ʻākepa, uʻi with its pastel green blush,
share its ʻōhiʻa lehua-honeyed tune.
The more quiet gray-green, green, olive-green, yellow
Maui nukupu‘u has vanished from sight.
And the thwock sounding flaming-red, brown
kākāwahie nani, killed by parasitic infection, has ended its flight.
The brown-gray-white-silver
poʻo-uli snail eater exists in record alone.
All that is left of these eight Hawaiian birds is bone.
Our actions—bringing invasive species, diseases, and climate change—are to blame.
We must make a eulogy-song for these silenced birds;
they needed our intervention that never came.
About the Creator
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Comments (2)
Like Gabriel, I am another lover of birds. This is such a gorgeous poem, although very heartbreaking. Thanks for giving a voice to beings who cannot speak. "We must make a eulogy-song for these silenced birds" ❤❤❤ Congratulations, Travis, on your top story!
This is hauntingly profound. As a fellow lover of birds, this is absolutely heartbreaking - and a reflection of the broader issues with humanity's priorities and lack of global concern. Beautiful writing, tragically necessary. Congrats on the well-deserved Top Story!