Ten chicks of a kingfisher declared extinct in the wild are in quarantine ahead of joining a small wild flock on a remote Pacific atoll – where the first birds released are already laying eggs.
The sihek began disappearing from its native Guam in the 1940s, after brown tree snakes were accidentally introduced to the island.
The last wild sihek were brought into zoos accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums in the mid-1980s to start a breeding program, and the species has been listed as Extinct in the Wild ever since.
That program now looks after 143 sihek at 23 facilities. Cincinnati Zoo alone has 17, including six breeding pairs.
This year’s chicks came from Cincinnati Zoo, Brookfield Zoo Chicago, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the National Aviary, Oregon Zoo, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, Sedgwick County Zoo and Saint Louis Zoo.
The first nine birds went to Palmyra Atoll in 2024, a predator-free atoll in the Pacific, and their progress has given the team the confidence to go bigger. Aimee Owen, a senior aviculturist at Cincinnati Zoo, says that first release was about proving the birds could cope.
“More guidelines and expectations are set now, and I feel that it’s really time for the program to shine,” Owen said.
The zoo’s own chick in this year’s group is named after a summer intern from the University of Guam who worked with the team.
The long-term hope is that sihek will one day go home to Guam itself. Until then, visitors to Cincinnati Zoo can see two young chicks that hatched there this summer.
