The Return of the King(fisher)

In 1988, the Guam kingfisher was declared extinct in the wild. Thanks to 40 years of conservation work, the bird is mounting a comeback.

The Guam kingfisher's scientific name is Todiramphus cinnamominus. It has a cinnamon-colored body and azure wings. It's known to locals on the island territory in the west Pacific as the sihek. It was among Guam’s most recognizable species. But the invasive brown tree snake eats both the sihek and its eggs. Its introduction wiped out the island’s kingfisher population.

Before the sihek vanished, conservationists managed to capture 28 of the birds. They’ve been steadily growing in number in captivity ever since. That's thanks to breeding programs in the US. Last September, biologists released five male and four female siheks on the tiny, uninhabited islands of the Palmyra Atoll.  

Palmyra is 3,600 miles from Guam. But it has a similar climate. It’s also free of predatory invasive species. That, experts believed, would give the birds a fighting chance. Now there’s evidence that the siheks have made the most of it. 

“These birds were raised in captivity until last year,” Martin Kastner, a biologist with the Nature Conservancy and the Zoological Society of London, told Public Radio Guam. “Now they’re foraging, nesting and even laying eggs on their own. It’s (a huge step).” 

Yes — laying eggs. Kastner’s team found a sihek nest on March 31. It only contained a single egg. But it was still the breakthrough biologists have hoped for.

“It’s hard to describe the feeling at that moment, when decades of expectation and effort … coalesce in an instant of joy and hope,” Kastner said. “I’ve seen a few special things in my life, but this might always stay at the top of the list.”  

Reflect: What is something you think is worth working hard for, even if it takes a long time?

Gif of Guam Kingfisher from GIPHY.