Hawaii: State Bird
We had a chance to see Hawaiian state bird, the Nene (top photo), in the wild when we visited Waimea Canyon. But I’d have to cast my vote for the wild rooster (bottom photo) as the state bird. These loud crowing cock-a-doodle-doo-ers were everywhere on Kauai, running through parking lots, backyards, roads, jungles and golf courses. Me and G went to a waterfall that was a 15 minute kayak and a 30 minute hike through the woods and sitting at the edge of the waterfall was a rooster. According to Wikipedia:
Some say a chicken farm was destroyed, causing all of the chickens to roam free that one may see today. Others say that sugarcane plantation laborers in the late 1800s and early 1900s brought and raised chickens (for eating and cockfighting) and many got loose over the years and multiplied. Whatever their original source, Kauai is now home to thousands of wild roosters and hens, roaming the island with few natural predators.
I posted a Kauai Wild Chicken Recipe after the jump:
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