Dean spots the endangered akiapola'au, one of our target birds, creeping along a branch. The yellow-green bird, who does the job of a woodpecker, begins hammering away at the bark with its lower beak. Termed the "Swiss Army knife" of Hawaii's bird world by scientist and photographer Jack Jeffrey, the akiapolaau uses its long, curved upper beak to spear grubs.

The akiapolaau flies off before I can train my binoculars on it. Dean steers us off the trail in pursuit, hacking away at the introduced thorny blackberry bushes with his machete. The search ends with the decision to take our lunch break in a meadow pocked with lava rocks.

We drive next to Puu Laau, a dry upland forest on Mauna Kea, with stands of mamane, naio and sandalwood trees. Puu Laau is the only place to find the endangered palila, a yellow-headed, white-breasted bird that feeds on the mamane's orange-yellow seeds. Dean's tenacity pays off this time while tracking the palila. He leads us to a family of three — a male, a female and a juvenile. We even get to watch one wrest open a mamane seed pod.

There were no great photos or commemorative trinkets to take home. In fact, I only got one grainy photo of a pueo and can't even remember what some of the birds looked like in the sights of my binoculars. -->

But a reminder of our trek was a checklist of Big Island birds provided by the tour company, which I admittedly enjoyed filling out on the flight back to Honolulu.

BIRDWATCHING TOURS ON THE BIG ISLAND: Hawaii Forest and Trail does two birdwatching trips:

The Rainforest and Dryforest Birding Adventure takes birders into dryland forest on the west side of Mauna Kea and through misty forest on the northeastern slope of Mauna Loa.

Hakalau Forest Wildlife Refuge was the first National Wildlife Refuge established in the United States for forest birds. The tour is offered 18 times annually as the refuge requires an access permit. See also, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: www.fws.gov/pacific/pacificislands/wnwr/bhakalaunwr.html

Price: Adults: $155. Limit 10 people per tour.

On the Net: www.hawaii-forest.com/

Phone: 800-464-1993 or 808-331-8505.

ON YOUR OWN: Hawaii Volcanoes National Park for most of the Big Islands's native forest birds, plus black noddies nesting along Chain of Craters Road. Check out the volcanoes too. Call 808-967-7311.

Aimakapa Pond near Kona for water birds such as pied-billed grebes, Hawaiian stilts and Hawaiian coots. Call Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park at 808-329-6881.