Pacific Golden Plover - photo by Jim Denny

More than twenty species of ducks, geese, and shorebirds migrate to Hawaii each winter. Among them is the Kolea or Pacific Golden Plover. It is an exciting time for birders in Hawaii, because one never knows what might arrive from some distant land. Scientists speculate that it was from seeds attached to the legs of these visitors from far off continents that Hawaii received many of the colonizing plants that now make up the lush native rainforest.