Located in an archipelago comprised of the volcanic Hawaiian Island chain, the state of Hawaii consists entirely of islands and the flora and fauna exhibit a high degree of endemism. The "3 W's" Wind, Waves and Wings used to be the only way to get to Hawaii before humans starting bringing organism with them. The wind carried airborn seeds and other tiny organisms through the air, the waves transported floating coconuts and swimming creatures, and the wings, i.e. Birds and insects could fly there brinign nuts, seeds and parasites with them.

Hawaii is the most isolated group if islands on the planet with the nearest continental shore being located roughly 4,000 km or 2,400 miles away. The main island is young in geological terms only 10 million years but there where other islands in the are before that and the colonization of the area by plant and animals had allready started when the main island was formed. Many submerged banks and coral atolls in the area are remnants of these ancient peaks.

Hawaii's remoteness has acted as biological filter since a population of a colonizing species here tend to stem from a very narrow number of settlers; sometimes just one or two organisms that happen to end up on the island and find favourable conditions. This means a very small gene pool with make it easy for new species to develop as every mutation can get a large effect on the entire population.

The ability to fly often makes birds the first larger animals to find new land masses. Some of them return to mainland or move on, but others stay on the island where they eventually turn into new species. Hawaii is as an example home to the Hawaiian duck (Anas wyvilliana), Hawaiian Goose (Branta sandvicensis), the Hawaiian Petrel (Pterodroma sandwichensis) and Hawaiian Hawk (Buteo solitarius). In the local language, they are known as Koloa maoli, Nene, Ua u, and Io, respectively.

One example of the many Hawaiian tropical flowers endemic to the archipelago is Hibiscus brackenridgei, the official state flower of Hawaii. It is known as Ma'o hau hele in the local language and can be found in shrub lands and dry forrest areas below an elevation of 800 meters (2600ft). It is present on all the main islands except Ni'ihau and Kaho'olawe is somewhat uncommon and can be hard to find. Ma'o hau hele produces large yellow flowers with a maroon centre that grows singly or in small clusters at the ends of branches.

There exists many endemic spider and insect species on Hawaii and among them you will find the snail eating caterpillar Hyposmocoma molluscivora, which is more commonly known as the happy faced spider Theridion grallator, and the tree-living snail Achatinella apexfulva. Hyposmocoma molluscivora is a type of moth and the larvea of this moth species uses silk to capture snails and then crawls into their shells where they eat the snail alive. This species is endemic to Maui and is known to make a silk case which it decorates with the shell of the snails it has eaten, it has been suggested that this might be to hide from their prey.