Nihoa (; haw, Nīhoa ), also known as Bird Island or Moku Manu, is the tallest of ten islands and atolls in the uninhabited

Northwestern Hawaiian Islands The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands or Leeward Hawaiian Islands are a series of islands and atolls in the Hawaiian island chain located northwest (in some cases, far to the northwest) of the islands of Kauai and Niihau. Politically, they are all p ...

(NWHI). The island is located at the southern end of the NWHI chain, southeast of Necker Island. Nihoa is the closest NWHI in proximity to the eight main windward

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands ( haw, Nā Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kur ...

at approximately northwest of the island of

Kauai Kauai, () anglicized as Kauai ( ), is geologically the second-oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands (after Niʻihau). With an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), it is the fourth-largest of these islands and the 21st largest island ...

. The island has two peaks, Miller's Peak in the west, and Tanager Peak in the east. Nihoa's area is about and is surrounded by a

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. Co ...

. Its jagged outline gives the island its name, , which is Hawaiian for "tooth".. Captain William Douglas, the second Western explorer to find Nihoa, describes the island as "

earing In sailing, an earing is a small line (rope) used to fasten the corner of a sail to a spar or yard. Background In the Age of Sail, a position at the Weather Earing (the earing at the windward side of the ship) was considered a place of honor fo ...

the form of a saddle, high at each end, and low in the middle. To the south, it is covered with verdure; but on the north, west, and east sides it is a barren rock, perpendicularly steep..." The island is home to 25 species of plants and several animals, making it the most diverse island in the entire NWHI. Endemic birds like the

Nihoa finch The Nihoa finch (''Telespiza ultima'') is one of the two endemic bird species of the tiny Hawaiian island Nihoa, the other being the Nihoa millerbird. When it was classified in 1917, scientists thought that it would be the last endemic species na ...

and

Nihoa millerbird The Nihoa millerbird (''Acrocephalus familiaris kingi'') is a subspecies of the millerbird. It gets its name from its preferred food, the Miller moth. The long millerbird has dark, sepia-colored feathers, white belly, and dark beak. Its natural ...

, and endemic plants like ''

Pritchardia remota ''Pritchardia remota'', the Nihoa pritchardia, Nihoa fan palm, or Loulu, is a species of palm endemic on the island of Nihoa, Hawaii, and later transplanted to the island of Laysan. It is a smaller tree than most other species of '' Pritchardia' ...

'' and ''

Schiedea verticillata ''Schiedea verticillata'', known as the Devils Slide schiedea or Nihoa carnation, is an endangered species of plant in the family Caryophyllaceae, endemic to the island of Nihoa in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, where it was discovered in ...

'' are found only on Nihoa. ''

Amaranthus brownii ''Amaranthus brownii'' was an annual herb in the family Amaranthaceae. The plant was found only on the small island of Nihoa in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, growing on rocky outcrops at altitudes of . It was one of nine species of ''Ama ...

'' was considered the rarest plant on Nihoa and has not been directly observed on the island since 1983, and is now considered to be extinct. The plant communities and rocky outcrops provide nesting and perching areas for 18 species of seabirds, such as

red-footed boobies The red-footed booby (''Sula sula'') is a large seabird of the booby family, Sulidae. Adults always have red feet, but the colour of the plumage varies. They are powerful and agile fliers, but they are clumsy in takeoffs and landings. They are f ...

and brown noddies, terns, shearwaters, and petrels. Prehistoric evidence indicates Native Hawaiians lived on or visited the island around AD 1000, but over time the location of Nihoa was mostly forgotten, with only an oral legend preserving its name. Captain

James Colnett James Colnett (1753 – 1 September 1806) was an officer of the British Royal Navy, an explorer, and a maritime fur trader. He served under James Cook during Cook's second voyage of exploration. Later he led two private trading expeditions that ...

rediscovered the island in 1788, and Queen Kaʻahumanu visited it in 1822. It was made part of the

Kingdom of Hawaii The Hawaiian Kingdom, or Kingdom of Hawaiʻi ( Hawaiian: ''Ko Hawaiʻi Pae ʻĀina''), was a sovereign state located in the Hawaiian Islands. The country was formed in 1795, when the warrior chief Kamehameha the Great, of the independent island ...

King Kamehameha IV Kamehameha IV (Alekanetero ʻIolani Kalanikualiholiho Maka o ʻIouli Kūnuiākea o Kūkāʻilimoku; anglicized as Alexander Liholiho) (February 9, 1834 – November 30, 1863), reigned as the fourth monarch of Hawaii under the title ''Ke Aliʻi ...

. In 1909, Nihoa became part of the Hawaiian Islands Reservation, a federal wildlife refuge established by U.S president

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

. The

Tanager Expedition The ''Tanager'' Expedition was a series of five biological surveys of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands conducted in partnership between the Bureau of Biological Survey and the Bishop Museum, with the assistance of the United States Navy. Four ex ...

surveyed the island in 1923, taking a comprehensive biological inventory of its many species. In 1940, it became part of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Wildlife Refuge and in 1988, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places due to its culturally significant archaeological sites. In 2006, it became part of the

Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument The Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM) (roughly ) is a World Heritage Site, World Heritage listed National Monument (United States), U.S. National Monument encompassing of ocean waters, including ten islands and atolls of th ...

. Efforts are underway to ensure that endangered plant species are propagated beyond their limited range and represented in ex situ collections. Persons intending to visit Nihoa for cultural and scientific research purposes require a

USFWS The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...

-issued special-use permit to land on the island so as to reduce the risk of introducing alien species to Nihoa's already fragile ecosystem.

Geology & geography

Nihoa is part of the

Hawaiian – Emperor seamount chain Hawaiian may refer to: * Native Hawaiians, the current term for the indigenous people of the Hawaiian Islands or their descendants * Hawaii state residents, regardless of ancestry (only used outside of Hawaii) * Hawaiian language Historic uses * ...

of volcanic islands, atolls, and seamounts starting from the island of

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

in the southeast to the

Aleutian Islands The Aleutian Islands (; ; ale, Unangam Tanangin,”Land of the Aleuts", possibly from Chukchi language, Chukchi ''aliat'', "island"), also called the Aleut Islands or Aleutic Islands and known before 1867 as the Catherine Archipelago, are a cha ...

in the northwest. It is the youngest of ten islands in the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI), having formed 7.2 million years ago; the oldest,

Kure Atoll Kure Atoll (; haw, Hōlanikū, translation=bringing forth heaven; haw, Mokupāpapa, translation=flat island, label=none) or Ocean Island is an atoll in the Pacific Ocean west-northwest of Midway Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands ...

, formed 30 million years ago. Over the millennia, Nihoa has experienced significant

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...

; along with Necker, French Frigate Shoals, and Gardner Pinnacles, Nihoa is one of only four islands in the NWHI that still has an exposed basalt rock substrate. Six valleys slant down from north to south, meeting at the south side of the island: West Valley, West Palm Valley, Miller Valley, Middle Valley, East Palm Valley, and East Valley. The valleys slant towards Adam's bay on the south side, which also has sea cave. Among features on Nihoa are Dog's Head Peak (), named for its likeness, and Pinnacle Peak (), a volcanic dike created when less resilient rock was eroded away and harder rock was open to the elements. The only flat area on the island is Albatross Plateau, just below Miller's Peak. The Devil's Slide is a narrow cleft descending irrespective of the surrounding elevation. Extending northward from Albatross Plateau, it ends at the vertical cliffs with a drop straight down to the ocean below. In this chasm, rare

fern A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except t ...

s grow, along with several

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

species, including a giant cricket.. The island is about 1371 meters long going from east to west, and 274-914 meters wide. The overall shape is that of half saddle, with one side having sheer cliffs and the other sloping towards the ocean. The highest peaks on the island include Miller peak at 277 meters high and Tanager peak at 260 m. high.

Ecology

Nihoa's inaccessibility and lack of major

guano Guano (Spanish from qu, wanu) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. As a manure, guano is a highly effective fertilizer due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. G ...

deposits made the island unattractive to humans, helping to preserve its

species from extinction. Because of Nihoa's small size, most of its endemic organisms are

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

, as one single disaster such as an island-wide fire or an introduction of

invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...

could wipe out the whole population. One such invasive species is the gray bird grasshopper, ''Schistocerca nitens''; from the period between 1999 and 2003, grasshoppers devastated much of the vegetation on the island and posed a real threat to the continued health of plants on Nihoa. The following year, the numbers decreased and the vegetation became lush again. The grasshoppers probably came to Nihoa by way of wind from

. The north side of the island's cliffs are mostly bare, but the sloping valleys are covered with a variety of grasses and shrubs. The two most common grasses on these slopes are ''Eragrosis Varabilis'' and ''Panicum torridum''. There is also a variety of scrubs and bushes on the island slopes, such as ''Chenopodium sandwicheum'' and ilima bushes (''

Sida fallax ''Sida fallax'', known as yellow ilima or golden mallow, is a species of herbaceous flowering plant in the ''Hibiscus'' family, Malvaceae, indigenous to the Hawaiian Archipelago and other Pacific Islands. Plants may be erect or prostrate and are ...

''). Unique species include: * ''

'' fan palm, the only tree on the island *

* Nihoa conehead katydid * Nihoa carnation * ''

Sesbania tomentosa ''Sesbania tomentosa'', commonly known as Oahu riverhemp and ''ōhai'', is an endangered species of plant in the pea family, Fabaceae, that is endemic to the main Hawaiian Islands as well as Nihoa and Necker Island. It inhabits low shrublands ...

'' * the amaranth ''

'' * the

trapdoor spider Trapdoor spider is a common name that is used to refer to various spiders from several different groups that create burrows with a silk-hinged trapdoor to help them ambush prey. Several families within the infraorder Mygalomorphae contain trapdoo ...

'' Nihoa mahina'' * ''

Thaumatogryllus conanti ''Thaumatogryllus conanti'' is a nocturnal species of cricket endemic to the island of Nihoa, where it is found in Devil's Slide, a narrow ravine. It is named after Sheila Conant, the scientist who discovered it in the 1980s. Including ''T. conan ...

'', a giant cricket found in the Devil's Slide area * '' Plagithmysus nihoae'', a

longhorned beetle The longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae), also known as long-horned or longicorns, are a large family of beetles, with over 35,000 species described. Most species are characterized by extremely long antennae, which are often as long as or longer than ...

* '' Eupelmus nihoaensis'', a

wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. Th ...

* '' Hylaeus perkinsian'', Perkin's yellow-faced bee

Important Bird Area

The island forms part of the Northwest Hawaiian Islands

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA), designated as such by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

because of its seabirds and endemic landbirds.

Ancient History

Nihoa was well known to the early Hawaiians. Archaeological expeditions found extensive prehistoric

agricultural terraces In agriculture, a terrace is a piece of sloped plane that has been cut into a series of successively receding flat surfaces or platforms, which resemble steps, for the purposes of more effective farming. This type of landscaping is therefore ...

and house sites.. At least one site has been dated to around the 1st millennium AD, sometime between 867 and 1037. There is some doubt as to the number of people that lived on Nihoa, because while the large terraces suggest a considerable number, there is scant

fresh water Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...

to be found. Archaeologists

Kenneth Emory Kenneth Pike Emory (November 23, 1897 – January 2, 1992) was an American anthropologist who played a key role in shaping modern anthropology in Oceania. In the tradition of A. L. Kroeber and other pioneering anthropologists who trained him, ...

and Paul Cleghorn estimate that water could support as many as 100 people, although if the island were previously forested, this would have increased fresh water supplies relative to its current state. Because of the island's importance, the island was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1988, and subsequently became part of

in June 2006. Nihoa, along with Necker Island to the northwest, is among the most northern, isolated, smallest and driest of the high volcanic Hawaiian islands, and receives the lowest dust and

tephra Tephra is fragmental material produced by a volcanic eruption regardless of composition, fragment size, or emplacement mechanism. Volcanologists also refer to airborne fragments as pyroclasts. Once clasts have fallen to the ground, they rem ...

input. All of these features were found to strongly predict

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...

among the

Pacific Islands Collectively called the Pacific Islands, the islands in the Pacific Ocean are further categorized into three major island groups: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Depending on the context, the term ''Pacific Islands'' may refer to one of se ...

. The abandonment of Nihoa may be tied to deforestation although this has not been proven and small groves of trees were noted in the major drainage valleys during survey work conducted in 1928. Artifacts recorded on the island represent a unique material culture demonstrating restraint in the utilization of wood. A number of artifact types such as bowls and human figures called ''ki'i'' that elsewhere in the Hawaiian chain would have been made out of wood were instead carved from stone, a lengthy and labor intensive process.Archeology of the “Mystery Islands” Nihoa and Mokumanamana
/ref> Archaeological sites on the island are similar to other site types within the Hawaiian islands and include both packed dirt and stone terraces likely for habitation and agricultural uses on the steep slopes of the island, cave shelters, and

heiau A ''heiau'' () is a Hawaiian temple. Made in different architectural styles depending upon their purpose and location, they range from simple earth terraces, to elaborately constructed stone platforms. There are heiau to treat the sick (''heia ...

. Some scholars consider Nihoa to be a matched pair with Necker Island although the latter appears not to have had a permanent population. The heiau on Nihoa and Necker Islands are unique in the Hawaiian chain representing a raised pavement of basalt stones with upright stones placed across this pavement often near the edges as opposed to the form common to other islands in the chain represented by a high stacked stone wall enclosing a central space. This difference in form represents an earlier iteration of Hawaiian monumental architecture that offers a unique perspective on cultural norms prior to the abandonment of Nihoa. Thanks to this difference in form, scholars often use the term '

marae A ' (in New Zealand Māori, Cook Islands Māori, Tahitian), ' (in Tongan), ' (in Marquesan) or ' (in Samoan) is a communal or sacred place that serves religious and social purposes in Polynesian societies. In all these languages, the term a ...

' as opposed to 'heiau' in reference to these structures and some scholars argue that the shift in form represents a shift in ritual practice in Hawaii.

Early exploration

The first Westerner to discover Nihoa was Captain

of the ''Prince of Wales'', on March 21, 1788. Due to Colnett's lengthy absence from England, including his imprisonment by the Spanish for his part in the Nootka Sound Incident, the discovery was once widely accredited to Captain William Douglas of the ''Iphigenia'', who sighted Nihoa almost a year later.. The abandoned settlements seen by the early explorers caused Nihoa and Necker islands, to be called the 'mystery islands'. However, this term is used more generally to refer to any island in the Pacific that was similarly abandoned prior to European contact. By the end of the 18th century, Nihoa had been forgotten by most Hawaiians. In 1822, Queen Kaahumanu and her husband King Kaumualii traveled with Captain William Sumner to find Nihoa, as her generation had only known the island through songs and

myths Myth is a folklore genre consisting of Narrative, narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or Origin myth, origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not Objectivity (philosophy), ...

. Later, King

Kamehameha IV Kamehameha IV (Alekanetero ʻIolani Kalanikualiholiho Maka o ʻIouli Kūnuiākea o Kūkāʻilimoku; anglicized as Alexander Liholiho) (February 9, 1834 – November 30, 1863), reigned as the fourth monarch of Hawaii under the title ''Ke Aliʻi ...

sailed there to officially annex the island as part of the

. Finally, in 1885, Princess Liliuokalani made a pilgrimage to Nihoa with her escorts, but their luncheon was cut short when one of the party ignited a

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire ...

by accident. The group tried to flee the island, but the rising

tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravity, gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide t ...

s made it difficult and several boats were flooded, destroying some of the photographs taken.. On this visit a carved basalt bowl was found and taken back to the main islands by the Queen. In 1859 the position of Nihoa island was determined by the survey schooner, USS ''Fenimore Cooper''.

Tanager expedition

During 1923-4 the Tanager expedition was a noted scientific exploration of Nihoa island. This resulted in various biological and archeological discoveries.Emory 1928 The Tanager expedition conducted the first archeological survey of the island. Evidence of an ancient settlement on Nihoa was discovered, along with platforms, terraces, and human remains.Emory 1928 Noted events include finding a specimen of ''

'' and the discovery of the

which was formally named ''Acrocephalus familiaris kingi'',Rauzon 2001, p.18 On this expedition, several hundred Loulu fan palms were counted on the island. Twenty other flowering plants were also noted at this time. Examples of exploration work: *Survey map of island *Bird life *Plants *Insects *Marine life *Geology On the Tanager expedition they also found the remnants of a modern Fishing camp in a cave near the landing, with some leftover coats and bags of rice.

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * United States Census Bureau
Nihoa Island: Block 1000, Census Tract 114.98, Honolulu County, Hawaii

External links

NWHI Multi-Agency Education Project

{{Coord, 23, 03, 38, N, 161, 55, 19, W, type:isle_region:US-HI, display=title Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain Nature reserves in Hawaii Seabird colonies Uninhabited islands of Hawaii Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Hawaii Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Hawaii Former populated places in Hawaii Protected areas established in 1909 1909 establishments in Hawaii Miocene volcanoes Paleogene Oceania Cenozoic Hawaii National Register of Historic Places in Honolulu County, Hawaii Important Bird Areas of Hawaii