Apapane Life History

Habitat

Apapane occur primarily in native Hawaiian forests dominated by ohia and koa trees and above the range of malaria-carrying mosquitoes. They breed on wet mountain slopes that receive up to 70–100 centimeters (28–39 inches) of rain annually, and they also forage in higher-elevation dry forests dominated by mamane. They are common on Kauai, Maui, and Hawaii, uncommon on Oahu, and rare on Molokai.

Food

Apapane feed mainly on the nectar of ohia and mamane flowers. They forage actively in the forest canopy, stopping at a flower for just a few seconds before moving onto the next one. Apapane also pick insects and spiders from twigs and leaves, mostly in outer tree crowns.

Nesting

Nest Placement

Placed in high outer branches of ohia trees, usually in trees without flowers. Both sexes build the nest, weaving it around small vertical branches 30–61 cm (12–24 inches) below a tree’s outermost leaves.

Nest Description

An open cup made mostly of mosses, with some ohia twigs, leaves, lichens, bark fragments, and roots mixed in. The inside of the cup is lined with shredded grass or sedge fibers.

Nesting Facts

Behavior

Apapane are monogamous. Both sexes build the nest and feed nestlings, but only the female incubates the eggs and broods the chicks. Apapane generally forage alone, but they sometimes form loose foraging flocks approaching 40 individuals in size. This nectar feeder makes wide-ranging foraging flights year-round in search of flowering ohia trees, and these flights can result in incredibly high densities of Apapane at a site, sometimes exceeding 3,000 individuals per square kilometer.

Conservation

The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists Apapane's conservation status as Least Concern and estimates a population size of 700,000 to 1.1 million mature individuals.

Credits

BirdLife International. 2023. Himatione sanguinea. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2023: e.T103828426A225568137. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2023-1.RLTS.T103828426A225568137.en.

Fancy, S. G. and C. J. Ralph (2020). Apapane (Himatione sanguinea), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (A. F. Poole and F. B. Gill, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.apapan.01

Floyd, Ted (2025). Field Guide to the Birds of the United States and Canada. Eighth edition. National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C.

Pratt, H.D., Bruner, P.L. and Berrett, D.G. (1987). A Field Guide to the Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific. Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, New Jersey.

Raine, H. and A. F. Raine (2020). American Birding Association Field Guide to Birds of Hawai'i. Scott & Nix, Inc. New York, NY, USA.

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