Michael Walther

Michael Walther was born in Cleveland, Ohio and raised in Margate, Florida and Southern California. He first visited Hawai‘i in December 1972 for several months. In March 1980, he moved to Kaua‘i and while living in Po‘ipu¯ Beach became interested in the native honeycreepers that survived in the remote Alaka‘i Wilderness area. In January 1981, he returned to the mainland. For the next fifteen years he lived and worked in California but the memory of the colorful and disappearing honeycreepers stayed with him. During his last year in college, the fate of Hawai‘i’s native birds became the focal point of his research.

In 1994, he returned to Hawai‘i which had become “the Endangered Species Capital of the World,” to study its birds and do what he could to help them survive. For three months, he surveyed the native forest bird populations on Kaua‘i to determine their status. His results were published in the journal of the Hawai‘i Audubon Society: ‘Elepaio. He returned to California to finish his degree in Anthropology with an emphasis in Environmental Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

After graduating with honors in March 1995, he moved to Maui and volunteered for The National Biological Survey. He participated in a project studying several of the rarest birds on Earth, including the Maui ‘A¯kepa, Loxops coccineus ochraceous, Maui Nukupu‘u, Hemignathus lucidus affinis, Po‘o-uli, Melamprosops phaeosoma, Kiwikiu, Pseudonestor xanthophrys, and ‘A¯kohekohe, Palmeria dolei. He worked on a research team that was surveying the wild, wet and windy slopes of the world’s largest dormant volcano, Haleakala¯.

Michael is the author of six books on native Hawaiian flora and fauna, including: A Pocket Guide to Nature on O‘ahu; Images of Natural Hawai‘i: A Pictorial Guide of the Aloha State’s Native Forest Birds and Plants; Pearls of Pearl Harbor and the Islands of Hawai‘i, A Guide to Hawai‘i’s Coastal Plants, Extinct Birds of Hawai‘i (two editions) and Birdwatcher's Guide to O'ahu, as well as many articles in birding and nature publications. In the fall of 1995, Michael, with the help of his brother Mark, started O‘ahu Nature Tours. The company slogan is “Conservation through education.

Please help Hawaii's remaining native forest bird species survive by contributing to the American Bird Conservancy's Birds not Mosquitoes efffort.