Kauai, Hawaii

Kawaii, Hawaii, United States

Also known as the "Garden Isle," Kauaʻi ([kɐˈwɐʔi] in Hawaiian) is the oldest and fourth largest of the main Hawaiian Islands. Legend has it that Hawaiʻiloa, the Polynesian navigator who discovered the Hawaiian Islands, named it after his favorite son.

According to Kauai.com, "Like the other islands, Kauai was initially inhabited roughly 1500 years ago by the same Polynesian adventurers who completed their nearly 2000 mile sea voyage on outrigger canoes when they first landed on the shores of the big island of Hawaii. Here they stayed undisturbed for around 500 years, until a second wave of sea-canoe travelers appeared, this time from Tahiti (which was also originally settled by Polynesian sea-canoe explorers). It was from the Tahitian arrival that the current Hawaiian gods, belief structures and many traditions evolved."

There are thousands of wild chickens on Kaua'i. They are everywhere! And you can hear the roosters crow every minute of the day.

But it did not use to be that way. In 1992, Hurricane Iniki swept across the island and destroyed all the coops. The fowl were released and have proliferated ever since.

According to Modern Farmer, "All domestic chickens are descendants of a bird called the red junglefowl, native to various parts of, mostly, Southeast Asia. Domestic chickens these days are mostly so far removed from the red junglefowl that they can hardly be compared with it, but the Hawaiian chickens are a little bit different. Polynesians brought red junglefowl with them when they settled Hawaii, and only cross-bred them with domestic chickens following Captain Cook’s landing on the archipelago in 1778. So the Hawaiian chickens are pretty recently developed from their wild form."

The usual joke is that feral chickens are the “official” birds of the island.

KauaiHawaiiUnited Statesnaturewaimea canyonanimalswild chickenrooster