Posted on: Friday, February 22, 2002

Songbird showing promise in wild

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Science Writer

The rugged puaiohi, or small Kaua'i thrush, may be endangered, but it may also be the best hope for the survival of endangered Hawaiian songbirds, researchers say.

Biologists from the Zoological Society of San Diego, which runs the Keauhou Bird Conservation Center on the Big Island, have been using the puaiohi to test techniques for raising forest birds in captivity and then releasing them into the wild.

They collected 15 viable eggs from nests in the Alaka'i Swamp on Kaua'i several years ago. The release of eight birds early this month brings to 47 the number that have now been released into the wild.

At least a third of those released are breeding, said Alan Lieberman, program director for San Diego Zoo's Hawai'i Endangered Bird Conservation Program.

"This is the only endangered species songbird that has gone full circle" from eggs taken into captivity to eggs produced in the wild by the offspring of birds hatched from the original eggs, he said.

It works because the puaiohi are are remarkable birds, even though disease and predators have cut their population to between 200 and 300 in the Kaua'i forest.

"They are a very cooperative species. They breed readily, they are not very problematic as far as rearing them, they travel well and release well, and they are big enough to carry a transmitter" so their survival in the wild can be tracked, Lieberman said.

Using techniques developed with the puaiohi, the zoo is now moving toward similar efforts with the Big Island's palila and the Maui parrotbill.