| [00:01.89] |
This bird's beak is perfect for sipping nectar from tubular flowers. |
| [00:08.58] |
It's an 'I'iwi... |
| [00:11.76] |
a long-billed honey creeper only found in Hawaii. |
| [00:14.79] |
But when blown to these shores four million years ago,400 |
| [00:17.84] |
its ancestors looked very different. |
| [00:23.20] |
Those first Hawaiian honey creepers were finch-like, |
| [00:26.09] |
with short bills, perhaps quite similar to this modern honey creeper, the palila. |
| [00:30.27] |
Its stout bill is perfect for ripping open tough seed pods. |
| [00:36.59] |
But once here, the honey creepers made the most of it, |
| [00:39.93] |
evolving into a variety of birds with some very distinctive bills. |
| [00:47.91] |
The Maui parrotbill has a strong, hooked beak |
| [00:51.50] |
for getting at the grubs inside dead wood. |
| [01:07.74] |
And then there's the 'akiapola'au, |
| [01:10.15] |
with one of the most remarkable beaks of any bird. |
| [01:16.07] |
Its lower mandible is straight and chisel-like |
| [01:18.67] |
and can puncture the bark to drink the sap... |
| [01:23.45] |
..while its upper mandible is long and curved for winkling out grubs. |
| [01:28.56] |
It's as close as a bill gets to a Swiss Army penknife. |
| [01:32.36] |
|
