Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge is a coastal salt marsh along the south-central coast of Maui, Hawaiʻi.
The wetland is also a 691-acre (2.80 km2) bird sanctuary, home to 30 species of waterfowl, shorebirds, and migratory ducks, including the ʻaukuʻu (black-crowned night heron, Nycticorax nycticorax hoactli) and the endangered āeʻo (Hawaiian stilt, Himantopus mexicanus knudseni) and ʻalae keʻokeʻo (Hawaiian coot, Fulica alai).
[7][8] By spring, water levels begin dropping[9] and by summer, the pond shrinks to half its winter size, leaving a salty residue behind: this accounts for its name, "Kealia", meaning "salt encrusted place";[7] Coastal salt pans once produced the mineral from seawater.
[9] Kealia was once an ancient fishpond supplied with water from the Waikapu Stream in the West Maui Mountains and Kolaloa Gulch originating from Haleakalā.
[4] Towards the west, the area between Kealia and the town of Māʻalaea contains another shallow pond and mudflats that are also used by the birds during the winter and spring flooding.