so here's to a new beginning in my blogging career. i have tired this several times in the past only to realize i am far too boring to keep it up for long... that and no one ever reads it besides me! this time, though, i hope my present location in a tropical paradise doing what i've always wanted to do will inspire something interesting for me to talk about. only time will tell!! so in case you haven't heard, i am currently living in maui working with critically endangered hawaiian birds. i've only been here a week and i've already seen and learned so much!! the first birds i've worked with are the "forest birds". these are the two species we have that live deep in the forests of hawaii. the first is the maui parrotbill (or as we call them here: MAPAs). these are probably the most interesting bird i've worked with so far (but i haven't worked with our crows yet!!). they are busy little things never staying still long enough for me to take a picture. we have two pairs of mapas as well as two additional males which were recently caught up in the dense haleakala forests around 7000ft up the volcano. it is believed there are about 150 of these birds in existance and unfortunately because of this we have to keep some in captivity to encourage them to breed and be sure that their young make it through their rough childhood. the females (mehina and chloe) we have are the sweetest things. they always follow me around when i'm in cleaning their enclosure and when i try to feed them their wax worms they will often try to take them right out of my fingers. it looks like one of our pair (chloe and chewy) may be in the beginnings of making a nest and if they lay an egg it will be a great help to this delicate species.