Just as people in Hoenn are awakened by the crowing of Torchic, residents of Alola must cover their ears in the mornings to drown out the sound of flocks of Pikipek beaks boring into trees. It is a noise which, although frustrating, the people tolerate – for they have long believed that Pikipek are the only reason they have trees at all.
According to local legends, Alola was once a barren land, the whole island a collection of windswept rocks not all that different from the outside of Ten Carat Hill – but with fewer patches of grass. But Pikipek, over the course of their long-distance migrations, carried seeds in their mouth – and every now and then, when they flew over Alola, they would drop them. The local pokemon – mostly ground and rock types at the time – were intrigued by the seeds, and built up the soil around them, while other grass pokemon from afar landed here in Pikipek's bill, and other flying pokemon chose Alola to make nests. The stories of Alola's creation go on like this, occasionally ascribing a role to the guardian Tapu of each island – yet always trying to reconcile this with the idea of Pikipek as the carrier of seeds.
Pikipek are not found outside Alola today, nor does the fossil record supply evidence that they were first to these islands, and the legends describe times before any humans were around to witness a Pikipek at all. But perhaps there is some truth in these old stories. For Pikipek are found on each of Alola's islands, and migrate frequently between them over the course of their lifespans. And it is difficult to see how, if not as seeds in Pikipek beaks, either the trees themselves or many grass-type species such as Paras and Petilil crossed the waves.