Glimmer of Hope

ONE SMALL BIRD PROVIDES GLIMMER OF HOPE FOR SAVING A SPECIES

Kiwikiu Given Up for Dead Discovered in Maui Natural Area Reserve

(Kahului, Maui) – A remarkable discovery on Wednesday is providing a morale boast and hope to the dozens of experts working to save kiwikiu from extinction. One bird, released into the Nakula Natural Area Reserve (NAR) on the leeward slopes of Haleakalā, was found alive and well, after being thought dead for 605 days.

Zach Pezzillo with the Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project (MFBRP) reported his discovery on July 21. "I first heard what I thought might be a distant kiwikiu song. It then sang about ten times across a gulch in some koa trees. It dropped down into some kolea trees where it spent the next twenty minutes calling and actively foraging through the berries, bark, and leaves. I walked down into the gulch to get a closer look.”

Pezzillo looked for the bird’s unique leg bands and sure enough, it was a male bird designated as wild #1 (the first male kiwikiu captured in Hanawi Natural Area Reserve on the windward side of Haleakalā for the 2019 translocation).

To read more, please follow link to the press release.