The 'Akiapola'au is the least numerous endemic forest bird on the island, but they're usually the easiest of the endangered birds to see. This honeycreeper is specialized to pick and peck wood borers and other insects out of wood and bark, kind of like a woodpecker. They're very active birds, moving rapidly through the koa trees searching for food. Their distinctive calls and songs are among the loudest in the forest. In recent times 'akiapola'au are usually found in forests of koa trees (BOTH large and small), and feed almost exclusively on koa tree parasites. Follow one for a half hour or more and you'll get a good idea of the number of large borers that infest the koa. The largest population is in the closed Pua 'Akala tract of the Hakalau National Wildlife Refuge. The easiest place to view them is in pockets of koa in the Saddle kipukas along Powerline Road and Pu'u O'o Trail.

I got many of the following pictures while following the begging "CHEEP" of a juvenile in a small family group. They are not usually particularly shy. They have the most unusual and specialized beak form of any surviving endemic forest bird, and are very similar to the various species of extinct nukupu'u that used to inhabit most of the islands. The male can occasionally give a longer soft "whisper song" full of warbles and trills which may be the best singing display of any of the remaining native birds.