[Science] Birds introduced to Hawaii have evolved rapidly in just decades – AI

The red-billed leiothrix is a non-native species in HawaiiJason Gleditsch By Jake BuehlerNon-native birds are replacing Hawaii’s endemic species, adapting to new environments at a blistering pace of evolution. In the Hawaiian Islands, most native fruit-eating birds have gone extinct and been replaced by introduced counterparts. On the island of O’ahu, seed dispersal through fruit consumption is now mostly carried out by non-native species. Jason Gleditsch, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and his colleagues have been studying how these changes have affected the island. They have found that, despite the loss of native fruit-eaters, …