Native Bird News Today

Dr. Hanna Mounce, manager of the Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project, will speak at the annual meeting of the Friends of Haleakalā National Park on Thursday, April 25. Her presentation will cover “Alalā Recovery, Maui Nui.” 

What are little blue penguins trying to tell us?

There are growing concerns for the Hauraki Gulf's penguins with ten chicks found starving and dozens dead on Waiheke Island in the past few weeks. It has conservationists worried that we could be seeing a repeat of the mass die-off of kororā in the summer of 2017-2018. The deaths are thought to be due to over-fishing and rising sea temperatures, which drive the fish the birds feed on into deeper water where they can't catch them. Reporter Louise Ternouth and camera operator Tim Collins...

Community activists have pitched camp on the boundary of a former chemicals plant in New Plymouth to advocate for it to be turned into nature reserve.

A seabird restoration project was initiated this week at Nuʻalolo Kai on the rugged and remote Nā Pali coast of Kauaʻi. The project is a partnership of multiple organizations and aims to restore seabird populations that have been lost from the site due to introduced predators.

“Four Hawaiian honeycreepers are at risk of extinction within the next ten years: akikiki ~1 year; kiwikiu ~6 years; akekee ~8 years; and akohekohe ~10 years. If we lose these special birds, we also lose the essential roles they perform within the native ecosystem and a piece of Hawaiian culture. Unless we take significant action now, they will be gone forever.”

Work is currently underway to replace an old, rusty fence that surrounds the sprawling Kanahā Pond State Wildlife Sanctuary on Maui. The old fending is being replaced with predator-proof fencing to keep rats, cats, mongoose, and dogs from attacking ground-nesting birds.

Of the eight remaining forest bird species on Kaua‘i, two face imminent extinction. The ‘akikiki and ‘akeke‘e, are threatened by mosquito-borne avian malaria.

UH Hilo’s LOHE lab wants to improve techniques for monitoring endemic birds in Hawaiʻi.

MARE ISLAND — NightMare Island is here this year with a new venue but the same fun time. The youth-friendly, none-too-scary haunted house will take place from 5 to 6 p.m. There will be no scary actors, animatronics or roaming actors. But after 6 p.m., it’s a grownup party with scares suited fo