'I'iwi and hāhā original

Original 5”x7" illustration. 'I'iwi (Drepanis coccinea) and haha (Cyanea grimesiana ssp. grimesiana). Hawaiian honeycreepers as a whole are extremely susceptible to avian malaria. These birds evolved over 5-7 million years without malaria or mosquitoes (the vector for this disease). Although ‘apapane and ‘amakihi show some resilience, other honeycreepers are not so lucky; there is a ~90% mortality rate for an ‘i’iwi bitten by a single malaria-carrying mosquito. Mosquitoes are all over, how are there still ‘i’iwi in Hawai'i? Both the organism that causes avian malaria (Plasmodium relictum) and the mosquito that transmits it (mostly Culex quinquefasciatus) are generally unable to proliferate at higher elevations due to cooler temperatures. So, birds like ‘i’iwi are restricted in range to higher elevation forests, occupying a small fraction of their former distribution. O'ahu no longer has high-elevation forests safe from malaria, but other islands do. The problem with this is that climat