KAPAA, Hawaii — The tradition of Friday night football on the island of Kauai has been disrupted by an unusual culprit: Young seabirds migrating to the ocean mistake stadium lights for the moon and stars, causing them to become disoriented, drop from the sky and fall prey to cats.
School officials canceled Friday night football for almost all of the season on Kauai and moved the games to Saturday afternoon, angering residents who are upset that their beloved fall tradition has been thwarted because of a bird.
They have been showing up to games wearing T-shirts that disparage the policy and occasionally voicing their displeasure from the stands.
“Because we’re in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, we don’t have much . . . to offer our kids. On a Friday night, this is what our kids would look forward to,” said Lori Koga, whose 17-year-old son is a Kauai High School varsity linebacker and running back. “And then they took that away from us.”
At issue is a bird called the Newell’s shearwater, which numbered about 80,000 in the mid-1990s. Its population has plunged 75 percent in recent years as Kauai grew in size and added more lights that confuse the birds.
The birds take their first flight a few months after hatching from ground nests in Kauai’s wet mountain forests. These fledglings, some still with down feathers, are prone to mistaking the bright lights at sports fields, hotels, parking lots and other places for the moon and stars, leading them to repeatedly fly around in circles.
They become exhausted and eventually drop to the ground, where they’re often attacked by cats or hit by cars unless they are rescued by volunteers. The species is also threatened by pigs and goats that trample on their nests.
