Feral rooster

Habitat:

Grassy field.

Notes:

Recorded history suggests the first settlers in Hawaii probably arrived around 500 A.D., according to most archaeologists who also agree they came from the Marquesas Islands and brought the first chickens to Hawaii with them. Five hundred years later the first Tahitians landed in Hawaii beginning a whole new era of cultural migration and bringing with them much larger chickens and more colorful roosters. It is here the Wild Roosters of Oahu began their Thousand Years Free Reign over the Aina unlike any other animal — mythological or natural. The rooster became known as Moa Kane and is so immersed in Hawaiian culture that, like the proverbial forest and trees, the impact this ubiquitous barnyard bird has had on Hawaii is often difficult to cull from daily life. Unlike other colorful birds, ownership of roosters wasn’t limited to Alii with commoners raising chickens for both eggs and meat. Hackle feathers from the necks of roosters were used in making feathered kahili, a pole topped with a cylindrical plume of feathers usually a symbol of authority like the medieval ceremonial mace held by kings and other war powers of Europe. Chickens were even among the gifts islanders gave Captain Cook. More modernly wild chickens can be found in both urban and rural settings all over Hawaii. In more agricultural and rural areas wild chicken flocks can be so thick that their inherent value as ravenous insert eaters can be overshadowed by their reputation as noisemakers and a health nuisance.