奇妙岛屿 08 - 英语听力

This bird's beak is perfect for sipping nectar from tubular flowers

It's an 'I'iwi

A long-billed honey creeper only found in Hawaii

But when blown to these shores four million years ago

Its ancestors looked very different

Those first Hawaiian honey creepers were finch-like

With short bills perhaps quite similar to this modern honey creeper the Palila

Its stout bill is perfect for ripping open tough seed pods

But once here the honey creepers made the most of it

Evolving into a variety of birds with some very distinctive bills

The Maui parrotbill has a strong hooked beak

For getting at the grubs inside dead wood

And then there's the 'Akiapola'au

With one of the most remarkable beaks of any bird

Its lower mandible is straight and chisel-like

And can puncture the bark to drink the sap

While it's upper mandible is long and curved for winkling out grubs

It's as close as a bill gets to a Swiss Army penknife