Welcome home kōlea

 

August 7, 2026

Our kōlea are back. The regularity of Pacific Golden-plovers migration is one of the reasons we Hawaiʻi residents love them so much. The birds adorn our yards and parks all winter, leave in April to raise their chicks, and return in August. Well, some birds return in August with others lingering in Alaska into the fall.

Since plover lovers started reporting returns on the Kōlea Count site in 2020, we now know that quite a few birds return in July (64 this year). These are adults that either had a super successful summer with chicks fledging fast, or an unsuccessful summer where nests were lost to either predators or weather. In either case, with no chicks to care for, the parents call it quits and come back to home base. (I call Hawaiʻi home to kōlea because they spend nine months of the year here.)

This year, the first birds, in a flock of six, arrived on July 1st at Maui’s Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge, all still showing some breeding colors. Since then, a total of 144 birds have been reported returned. (That was the number when I started writing this yesterday, but it’s going up fast. Now 168. No, wait. 172)

Usually, females depart Alaska first, leaving the males to fend for the kids, but we can’t tell the sex by looking. Unless we know the bird personally, such as our Jake who arrived in his patch yesterday for the 10th year, we can’t tell if a returned bird is male or female. That’s because once the birds have made nests, found mates, and laid eggs in Alaska, they no longer need those stunning spring feathers and the birds’ less colorful winter feathers begin to grow in. When the birds arrive in Hawaiʻi in July, August, and September, they show only hints of their spring outfits.

We can, however, tell if a kōlea that landed in Hawaiʻi is a summer offspring. These birds, which can arrive as late as October and November, depending on Arctic weather, will have no breeding colors whatsoever.

The molt of adults on nests does not pertain to wing feathers. Once a year, while in Hawaiʻi, the birds grow new wing feathers, the new ones gradually replacing the old ones, which are worn and frayed from the bird’s 6,000-mile round-trip migration. Slow wing feather replacement means the birds are always able to fly.

Thank you all for continuing to report your birds’ returns. The official count starts December 1st to give the summer’s youngsters time to get settled and get counted.

Our kōlea are back. Of course they are. In this world of uncertainty, kolea are our comfort birds.

See you September 19th.