A view of the Nene bird in the wild, at about 8,000 feet elevation along the side of the dormant Haleakala volcano.

I don’t normally shoot wildlife, but these guys were too cute to pass up on a little diversion. From what our tour guide told us (also on Wikipedia) this species was down to about 30 birds a few decades ago, and restorations efforts have increased those numbers to about 800. 

Those of us in the Midwest may recognize these birds as distant cousins of the usual Canadian Geese we see on a regular basis, but trust me, these are cuter and much nicer.