March 23, 2020
Maunawili Falls Trail, Oahu, HI – 21.35° N, 157.77° W, at an elevation of 134.87 m.
I left to go hike Maunawili falls at around 2:30 pm, on a relatively overcast day, however it had not been raining, so the trail was not too muddy. Since it was the middle of the day on a weekday, and we are practicing social distancing, there was nearly no one on the trail this day. This trail has a slow and steady incline that reaches its way to a pond at the bottom of a small waterfall. From there you can climb up the rock wall to see the other, smaller falls. Maunawili falls goes through a tropical mixed forest at the edge of the Ko’olau mountain range.
This environment contains abundant plant species that swoop down, stick out, and overcrowd the mud path. Although hard to spot through all the vegetation, there are many kinds of birds, lots of insects, and mollusks and crayfish within and around the waterfall.
A few species I noticed were…
- Colocasia esculenta (land taro)
- Metrosideros polymorpha (‘Ohi’a lehua, flowering evergreen tree)
- Syzygium malaccense (mountain apple)
- Pomacea canaliculata (apple snail)
- Acridotheres tristis tristis (common myna bird)
Common Myna, Acridotheres tristis tristis:
The common myna is a small bird, about 9″ in length, and identified by their brown bodies, black heads, and a small yellow patch behind their eyes. Their legs and beaks are bright yellow, and they have a white patches on their wings. The mynas I saw were in a pair, perched in an open gap between two boulders and a trunk of a banyan tree about half way through the trail.