A tiny population of yellow palila birds — a few of them wild and a few captively raised — appear to be establishing themselves on the north slope of Mauna Kea, in the state's Pu'u Mali Forest Reserve, several miles around the side of the mountain from the honeycreeper's main population.

Or at least, wildlife officials hope they're establishing themselves.

There are about 3,000 palila left, feeding on the seeds and flowers of mamane trees at 6,000 to 8,000 feet in elevation, all on Mauna Kea's western slopes. They once were common throughout much of the island, and wildlife officials have been trying to establish a second population, as a kind of safety net in case disease, storm or other catastrophe threatens the primary group.

The effort has included capturing wild birds and moving them, but the problem has been that most of them quickly fly back to their home turf, indicating that simply transplanting them is going to be difficult.

As an alternative, the Zoological Society of San Diego, which operates the Keauhou Bird Conservation Center on Kilauea, has been releasing birds hatched in captivity. Ten were released in 2003, 5 last year and 7 last week.

"We were pleased to discover that one of our captive males has mated with a wild female," suggesting that the transplant effort could be working, said Al Lieberman, avian conservation coordinator with the society.

Tracking of the released captive birds indicates that most seem to be doing well, but the northern palila crowd is still a very small crowd, not a lot more than a dozen birds.

The Pu'u Mali area, which once was home to palila but which has been without them for some time, was recently removed from a pasture lease, and the state is working to improve the habitat, fencing out grazing animals. Cattle and sheep seek out seedlings and low-growing branches of the mamane, with its compound leaves, yellow blossoms and rough seed pods.

The result of the habitat work has been gratifying, Lieberman said. "The mamane are coming back."

The bird conservation center is raising a number of Hawai'i's rarest birds, and has had sufficient success with a few that releases have been possible.

"We provide an ark where these species can be maintained while conservation and forestry officials work to set up protected habitat where they can be re-released," Lieberman said.

If you have a question or concern about the Hawaiian environment, drop a note to Jan TenBruggencate at P.O. Box 524, Lihu'e, HI 96766 or jant@honoluluadvertiser.com. Or call him at (808) 245-3074.