In December of 2006 Melanie and I took advantage of an invitation to join some friends for two weeks on the Big Island. This gallery contains images from those incredible two weeks. In-all, we were only able to find 52 species of birds, but 35 of them were totally new to us. However, only a handful of those will show up in this gallery, as many got away unphotographed. Unfortunately the Big Island is highly impacted by non-native introduced species of wildlife and plants. So from a naturalist's perspective, the island was a bit like a zoo that had not yet been fully stocked with exotic wildlife. The avian diversity was low, and there are only a handful of species of butterflies to be found, only two of which are species native to the island. Nonetheless, we were able to experience several species of native birds, plants, etc. and had a fabulous time on the island.