'I'iwi in Ohia Lehua by Ken _Gilliland
Close
Hover over top left image to zoom.
Click anywhere to exit.
Members remain the original copyright holder in all their materials here at Renderosity. Use of any of their material inconsistent with the terms and conditions set forth is prohibited and is considered an infringement of the copyrights of the respective holders unless specially stated otherwise.
Description
The 'I'iwi is found in the Hawaii Islands (Hawaii, Maui, and Kaua'I) in dense wet forests. The long curved bill of the 'I'iwi has evolutionally adapted to sip nectar from the long tubular flowers of the native Hawaiian lobelioids. They will pierce a hole in the base of the flower and extract the nectar with their brushy tipped tongues. They are important pollinators for many species of native plants. They forage high up in the mid to upper canopy of forests and will often defend a territory with a heavily flowering tree in it.
As the lobelioids have declined through habitat loss and extinction, 'I'iwis have shifted to feeding more on other native flowers such as the 'ohia-lehua, koa, naio, and mamane. This dietary shift has been reflected in the slight reduction in average bill length seen over the past century.
'I'iwis can produce a wide variety of calls from rusty door hinge sound to clear flute-like sounds.
A big thanks goes to X-Frog (Greenworks) for Oceania 1 which finally brings some native Hawaiian plants and trees to the 3D world and of course gives my Hawaiian birds something to forage in.
Rendered in Vue 8i with no postwork. Model credits: Ohia Lehua (xfrog) and 'I'iwi (me, SBRM CU1)
Comments (10)
Flint_Hawk
The bill on this bird is amazing! A beautiful looking bird & model!
Digital_Mischief
A lovely bird. It's sad so much of our wildlife is losing it's habitat.
MNArtist
Wonderful image. Hawaii is one of my favorite places. Great work on this
njb2000
Beautiful bird and setting lovely work!
J5ive
Right on!!
Seahorse
Wonderful!!!!
bigbraader
Looking good, the bird, in the flowerbush. 5*
cwrw
Great model as always with your wonderful attention to detail, and I really love the render! The lighting and foliage is perfect. Darn! I didn't see one of these when I was in Hawaii last! I'll just have to go back:)
Ken _Gilliland
if anyone wants to see the 'i'iwi, 'akiapola'au, 'o'mao or other great Hawaiian birds check out hawaii-forest.com's "Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge" trip... it's the only commerical tour allowed inside Hakalau
SIGMAWORLD
Very nice.