Kauai 2011 day 7: White-eyed bird

No, the above is neither a typo nor a mistake; I didn't take very many pics on our 6th day, and as I took enough photos on day 7 for multiple posts, I decided to skip day 6 and move right on to the 7th day—especially since my first set of photos are perfect for posting on National Bird Day.

Day 7 was when we made our journey to Waimea Canyon. In addition to all the shots I got of the canyon itself, I also had the opportunity to photograph a bird I'd noticed on a few occasions, but as yet had not been able to get a decent pic of: the Japanese White-eye, or Mejiro. Happily, luck was on my side as we strolled along one of the lookout areas—to my great delight, a Mejiro landed on and started working one of the bushes in front of us:



Not the clearest photo ever, but you can still make out some pollen on its beak:



Thanks to those distinctive eye rings, the Mejiro at times look like something out of a cartoon, at least to my mind:



Seems to be keeping an eye on me, no?



Oh yeah, that's a definite sidelong look there:



One final shot, barely cropped, to give you a sense of perspective. I think it also shows why it can be fairly tricky to spot one of the most common birds on the island—even when you know it's right in front of you: