Oct 1, 2026 · 59 min · 13 segments
Dennis Cabral Artist and Bird Lover Born in 1941 to a Portuguese plantation family, Dennis recounts how a childhood among mynas, cardinals, owls, and ʻeva folklore grew into a lifelong love of…
I think the biggest danger to the survival of the native birds is the lack of awareness these birds even exist
people have no idea they know the minor bird they know the majito they know those birds but you talk to them about an apapani or an eevee or an amakihi or an elepahio or they look at you like what are you talking about
now this is getting better a lot of the native hawaiian cultural renaissance has brought the prominence of the birds back And so people are becoming increasingly aware of the birds and what they mean both culturally and spiritually to the native cultures and increasingly to present day modern culture.
But there's still, I think, a profound lack of awareness and they don't understand, for example, that Hawaii is the extinction capital of the world and more birds go extinct, native birds, in Hawaii than anywhere else in the world.
And so the Kauai Forest Bird Recovery Project is very important in that they're trying to understand why the birds are disappearing.
And there's a recording of that bird, the male singing, calling for a mate that never showed up because there was no mate around.
You know, David Attenborough has featured that song in some of the things he's done to raise awareness.
But I think lack of awareness in the community is one of the biggest challenges that the Kauai Forest Bird Recovery Project faces.
And the art show, for example, that Julia does in the fall is a good means of trying to raise awareness.
And of course, their research in terms of discovering that habitat loss, you know, outside birds and wiping the birds out.
See a lot of people don't realize that the Hawaiian native birds evolved in an environment that had not any predators that would bother them.
They were not developing the antidotes, if you will, against bites from mosquitoes, okay? They did not know about other birds coming in to kill them, you know, or spread disease on them, the avian malaria and avian pox.
As I understand it, the mosquitoes arrived around 1848 in the islands inadvertently as larvae in water casks, where the sailors who were replenishing the water casks and the whaling ships and so forth, went into the Hawaii streams, washed out their barrels, put in new water.
I think the biggest danger to the survival of the native birds is the lack of awareness these birds even exist
people have no idea they know the minor bird they know the majito they know those birds but you talk to them about an apapani or an eevee or an amakihi or an elepahio or they look at you like what are you talking about
now this is getting better a lot of the native hawaiian cultural renaissance has brought the prominence of the birds back And so people are becoming increasingly aware of the birds and what they mean both culturally and spiritually to the native cultures and increasingly to present day modern culture.
But there's still, I think, a profound lack of awareness and they don't understand, for example, that Hawaii is the extinction capital of the world and more birds go extinct, native birds, in Hawaii than anywhere else in the world.
And so the Kauai Forest Bird Recovery Project is very important in that they're trying to understand why the birds are disappearing.
And there's a recording of that bird, the male singing, calling for a mate that never showed up because there was no mate around.
You know, David Attenborough has featured that song in some of the things he's done to raise awareness.
But I think lack of awareness in the community is one of the biggest challenges that the Kauai Forest Bird Recovery Project faces.
And the art show, for example, that Julia does in the fall is a good means of trying to raise awareness.
And of course, their research in terms of discovering that habitat loss, you know, outside birds and wiping the birds out.
See a lot of people don't realize that the Hawaiian native birds evolved in an environment that had not any predators that would bother them.
They were not developing the antidotes, if you will, against bites from mosquitoes, okay? They did not know about other birds coming in to kill them, you know, or spread disease on them, the avian malaria and avian pox.
As I understand it, the mosquitoes arrived around 1848 in the islands inadvertently as larvae in water casks, where the sailors who were replenishing the water casks and the whaling ships and so forth, went into the Hawaii streams, washed out their barrels, put in new water.
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