BY ELAINE SCHAEFER | If you’ve had the opportunity to stay at the Cliff’s condos, you’re probably very familiar with the Nene, (nay-nay) the State bird, as this is one of their homes. On many occasion I’ve walked down my condo steps into a gaggle of them all congregated under a tree or out looking for food.

Found only in the Hawaiian Islands of Kauai, Maui and Molokia, the Nene was on the edge of extinction by 1949, with only 20 to 30 birds remaining in the wild due to uncontrolled hunting and the non-native predators, like the mongoose, pigs and feral cats, which quickly took its toll on the population. Conservation efforts were undertaken when the Nene was adopted as the State bird on May 7, 1957.

Even now the Nene is on the Federal List of Endangered Species, however, the preservation efforts are seeing some success as there are now about 800 wild Nene in Hawai’i and the numbers are rising with each breeding season.

The Nene is a handsome bird with a black head, buff cheeks and heavily furrowed neck. Bill, legs and feet are black. It has longer,stronger legs and almost non-existent webbing on their toes, which is an adaptation to the lava flows on which it breeds. The Nene does not spend much time in the water, does not migrate, and is an herbivore (plant-eater), eating grass and other low-lying plant material.

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