Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 5, Number 12, 1 Kekemapa 1988 — Naturally Hawaiian [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Naturally Hawaiian

By Patrick Ching Artist/ Environmentalist

The Moli Return

The Laysan Albatross, named after Laysan Island in the northwest Hawaiian ehain is known to Hawaiians as moli. It is a large, whitebodied bird with dark wings whieh span 7 feet from tip to tip. It sports a large bill, hooked at the end, and its face looks as though it has been airbrushed with eyeshadow. These birds appear awkward on land, waddling about in a peculiar way (such behavior is probably the reason these birds are nicknamed "gooney birds"). In the air, however, the moli are the most graceful of flyers as they glide about effortlessly over the ocean's surface occasionally banking and swooping m "figure eight" patterns. At this time of the year, November - December, that the moli return to the Hawaiian Islands to begin their breeding cycles. They congregate in groups of two or more and exhibit a series of elaborate courtship rituals including bobbing up and down, rapidly shaking their heads from side-to-

side, and tucking their heads beneath their wings. These gestures are accompanied by a variety of whistling, clapping and groaning sounds.

A pair of Laysan Albatross may mate for life and raise a single ehiek eaeh year. When learning to fly in June through August, the young albatross often stop to rest on the ocean's surface where many of them are eaten by sharks. This occurs frequently around the Northwest Hawaiian Islands where thousands of young moli fledge (grow in the feathers necessary for flight) eaeh year. By September nearly all of the albatross have left Hawai'i to fish the waters of the North Pacific. In 1976 the first albatross in recent history landed on the grounds of the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge on the island of Kaua'i. In 1978 the first ehiek successfully fledged. Since then hundreds of moli have eome to breed in the main Hawaiian Islands with the largest populations occuring on Kaua'i and O'ahu respectively. *Be on the lookout for the even larger blackfooted albatross. These birds are almost totally black in color and have been occasionally sighted flying over the Kilauea Point Lighthouse on Kaua'i. Perhaps they will be the next seabird species to reinhabit the main Hawaiian Islands.

Moli (Laysan Albatross), also known as "gooney bird."