Hawaiian hook-beak

Hawaiian hook-beak (Curvirostrornis heliciphagus)
Order: passeriformes (Passeriformes)
Family: Starlings (Sturnidae)
Habitat: The Hawaiian Islands – the Hawaii island; rain wood.
The fauna of the Hawaiian Islands substantially suffered because of influence of the mann. To the neocene on Hawaii didn't remain any bird species, existing there before colonization of the islands by the man, or their descendants. The new fauna of the Hawaiian Islands is formed mainly by descendants of the species delivered by the man, or the late settlers who have got on islands after disappearance of people. So on islands there were various descendants of birds from various families – finches, weavers, and other. The part of new introduced species didn't die out after disappearance of people, and evolved and their descendants occupied various ecological niches on the Hawaiian Islands.
In the conditions of the competition narrow specialization appears justified strategy of evolution. The descendant of delivered to Hawaii myna (Acridotheres tristis), the Hawaiian hook-beak, is an one of such "narrow experts". This songbird of the size of a large finch, with a curve long beak and a wide short tail, eats exclusively land snails occupying in abundance the woods of islands. It lives mainly in the crude woods and marshlands where there live more snails.
The plumage of this bird is painted rather brightly in comparison with dim plumage of the ancestor. At the Hawaiian hook-beak is a dark brown back with a light border on the feathers, forming a pattern similar to outline of wood bark. Pen-feathers of wings and steering feathers of the tail are black. But the lower part of a body is painted brightly and loud: bright red breast and yellow stomach. Males in plumage have more than red color, than at females. At birds of both sexes the area round eyes is bereaved of feathers and covered with white skin. And on corners of a beak there are skin blades of pinkish color. At a displaying male they become bright red, and increase in sizes because of blood inflow.
The beak of the Hawaiian hook-beak is long and bent, the tip is longer than the mandible, and its tip slightly bends to the left. It is just associated with food specialization of this species: the bird eats snails, pulling out them from shells. This bird tears off small snails from leaves and drags on the favourite bough being "cutting". Here the bird presses the caught snail by a paw to bark, and dexterous movement of a beak pulls out her body from a shell. Under "cutting" of hook-beak collects a large number of shells of the eaten molluscs.
When the bird attacks a large snail, the mollusc usually presses sink edges to a substratum, and feels in relative safety. But the hook-beak by prick of the beak under edge of a shell forces to come unstuck a mollusk from a substratum and to be drawned in a shell even more deeply. After that it simply overturns a shell, and already on the place pecks a mollusc body out.
Hook-beaks – the single and territorial birds protecting the nested site from relatives. Only during a nesting season they keep in couples and jointly bring up baby birds. These birds nest two times in year, arrange nests in hollows of trees. During a mating season the male occupies a hollow, and starts singing, attracting a female. Hook-beaks are remarkable for abilities of the simulator and the improvisator: as a rule, for a breeding song the male imitates voices of the birds living in the neighbourhood, bringing in them a characteristic "buzzing" note. Usual voice of these birds – drawling buzzing trills. In a laying are 3 - 4 rather large eggs with a white shell. Mainly hatches the female, and a male feeds her.
Breeding lasts about two weeks, and a month more young growth is in a hollow. When at young birds will grow feathers, they leave a nest and about a month more wander with parents. Gradually the male starts showing to them aggression, and the young growth together with a female leaves its territory. Having had a rest and having fed up, the male starts preparing for a new season of reproduction.
Young birds in juvenile plumage have no red color, and skin on the bald parts of the head is gray, instead of white. They become capable to reproduction at the age of 12 – 15 months.