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Cellpic Sunday—The Day Mother Chicken Went Shopping

April 2025
Koloa, Hawaii.

After spending some time at Poipu Beach on the south shore of Kauai, we stopped at a mall in the nearby town of Koloa. The Shops at Kukui‘ula are part of a larger 1,010-acre luxury resort and residential community known as Kukui‘ula. The architecture of The Shops at Kukui‘ula reflects the past, aiming to capture the character of old Koloa Town.

I could write an entire post on the history of feral chickens on Kauai. Polynesian voyagers brought the first chickens, likely Red Junglefowl, to the Hawaiian Islands as a food source, possibly as early as 1200 AD. These birds roamed freely and went feral over time. Though there are feral chickens on the other islands, two hurricanes caused the population of Kauai’s chickens to explode. Hurricanes Iwa in 1982 and Iniki in 1992 devastated Kauai. These storms destroyed domestic chicken coops, releasing large numbers of domesticated birds into the wild, further intermingling with the existing feral population.

That leads me to today’s photo story and the day Mother Chicken took her chicks shopping. Walking down the mall sidewalk, I noticed a chicken and her brood were making a beeline for a door on one of the shops. When I got my cell phone ready to photograph them, I barely caught them walking through the door. The opening photo shows Mama and chicks just after entering the store. Soon they disappeared inside the store, and one of the shopkeepers was startled and surprised as she noticed the interlopers.

Chicken shopping-3 — *Enticing the chickens to leave.*

From the time stamps on the images, I learned that it took the shopkeeper about two minutes to find a bag of snacks and drop them in front of the chickens to encourage the family to leave.

Chicken shopping-4 — *Mama and the chicks got their fill of snacks.*

I visited with the shopkeeper for a few minutes and asked if chicken shopping happens often. She said it had been a couple of years since she had to lure another chicken family out of the store.

These birds roam freely in parks, beaches, and even parking lots, often surprising visitors with their boldness. Despite the frustrations they cause for some, the feral chickens of Kauai are deeply ingrained in the island’s identity and are often considered an unofficial mascot. Efforts to manage their population are ongoing, balancing residents’ concerns with the unique charm these feathered inhabitants bring to the “Garden Isle.”

About the photos: I captured these images with my Samsung S23U. I cropped them to a square format to focus on the chickens and loaded them into Luminar Neo. Because the birds were moving rather quickly, the first image had a slight motion blur. To remove the blur caused by my camera movement, not by the chicken’s movement, I ran Luminar’s Supersharp in Motion Blur mode. I ran the Noiseless tool on the interior shot and used the newly released automatic exposure correction button in the Develop module on all images. Then I finished by relighting the foregrounds, as the photos were all darker at the bottom of the pictures. I posted all the images on my Flickr site in 2K HD, including the first photo of them entering the doorway. That album is here.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never assign a specific theme to this feature—the primary rule is that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or other mobile device. The second rule: link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post. Oh, and there’s no penalty if you don’t post it on a Sunday.

John Steiner