Hawaiian Birds: Aloha, Island Adaptations

Birds in Hawaii are evolving at a rapid pace, evolutionary researchers claim. Or maybe there’s a better explanation.

The red-billed leiothrix has surprised evolutionists with its rapid physical adaptations to life on the Hawaiian Islands.

In Hawaii, most of the native fruit-eating birds have gone extinct. But the complex tropical ecosystem relies on birds to eat the islands’ abundant fruit and disperse their seeds. Non-native birds, introduced to the islands 50–90 years ago, have quickly filled the niches of their predecessors. These birds now display specialized characteristics such as shorter legs, thicker bills, and longer tails to help them fill their new roles.

How could this happen so quickly? Classic evolution, which demands thousands of generations, can’t explain such rapid adaptation. Biologists are amazed to see changes taking place within 10 to 20 generations.

But this is not rapid evolution because these are still the same kinds of birds. God designed creatures with the flexibility to diversify within their kinds and adapt rapidly to new conditions without becoming new kinds of creatures. This gave them the ability to fill the earth after the devastation of the worldwide flood, and it allows them to fill new ecological niches today.

Article was taken from Answers magazine, September–October, 2019, 17–18.