When I was hiking in the Waianae Mountains on Oahu, Hawaii, first I heard a beautiful bird’s song.
The song is a series of melodious phrases; calls include harsh scolding, chattering, and a repeated “peter-peter”. Then I sighted a couple birds chittering and twittering to one another as they flit from branch to branch of the plumeria tree. They had a bright red bill. I admire their attractive plumage: an olive-green cap and bright orange-yellow throat; an olive-green body with wingtips dipped in yellow, orange, red and black. The tail is forked and fringed in black. These were Red-billed Leiothrix, also known as the Pekin Nightingale, Pekin Robin, Chinese Nightingale, and Japanese Hill Robin.
They were imported to Hawaii in 1911 and purposefully released into the wild in 1918.
These beautiful birds inspired me to create the painting “Melodious songs”.
