Bird Lovers’ Road to Hana

This is an exclusive alternative to the popular Unique Road to Hana tour, but with a birdwatching twist. You will experience all the breathtaking beauty of the famous Road to Hana, while your expert Hawaiian Birdwatching guide helps you spot a variety of birds along the way, such as Great Frigate Birds, and White-tail Tropicbirds. We’ll stop to look for Hawaiian Stilts and Coots, Wandering Tattlers, Hawaiian Black Noddies, Red-crested Cardinals, and maybe Melodious Laughing-thrush too. This tour is just as enjoyable for the non-birders in the family, as we’ll still hit all the highlights of the Road to Hana.

We start our loop of East Maui by heading to the “backside,” going through Maui’s Upcountry area. Although rare, we may have a small chance of seeing a Pueo (short-eared owl) on the way. Depending on weather and road conditions, we might have to go “clockwise” so the order might change a little.

Along the wind-swept backside of the trail, we stop several times to enjoy the views. It also gives us a chance to stretch our legs and to search for the White-tail Tropic Birds that sometimes soar along sea cliffs.

If in season, we stop at a local pond to find a few shorebirds including: Hawaiian Stilts, Hawaiian Coots, Black-crown Night Herons, or maybe a Wandering Tattler. We then arrive just south of Hana by Koki beach which offers great views of Alau island, a sanctuary for Great Frigate Birds.

Afterward, we stop in Hana town for a well-deserved lunch at one of the local food trucks. In the afternoon, we make our way to Wai’anapanapa State Park, to see the Black Sand Beach and its large colony of endemic Hawaiian Black Noddies.

We’ll then proceed on the most famous part of the Road to Hana, where we will be weaving in and out of a thick rainforest canopy, passing countless waterfalls, and enjoying magnificent views of the coastline. As we stop to enjoy the views and take photos along the way, we might encounter the seasonal Kolea (Pacific Golden Plover), Northern Cardinals and Red-crested Cardinals, and maybe Japanese White-eyes (aka Warbling White-eyes) too.

If you’re interested and there’s enough time, we can stop at the Garden of Eden (optional) to try and find a Melodious Laughing-thrush (aka Chinese Hwamei), and make friends with the resident peacocks and ducks.

And to finish our wildlife watching, we can go say aloha to our resident “honu” (turtles) on Ho’okipa Beach!

• Note: while this tour is focused on finding birds along the way, it is a Road to Hana tour, not a birding tour. On this tour, we do NOT encounter our endemic Hawaiian Honeycreepers, which are now only found at elevation, nor Nene or Pueo. If you’d like to encounter our honeycreepers, we recommend you book a Private Birding Tour, or Group Birding Tour.
• This tour does not include the National Park’s Oheo Gulch (Seven Sacred Pools) or Pipiwai Trail. If you want to hike the Pipiwai trail, check our 7 Sacred Pools & Bamboo Forest Hike(opens in a new tab)