Comments on: Kipuka 21: A New Home for Our Creeper and ‘Akepa

by: Volcano Les

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 00:33:50 +0000

As a volunteer helping to prepare Kipuka 21’s trails with Na Ala Hele, a subset of the Div. of Forestry and Wildlife, I was rewarded with an invitation to the initial release of Hawai’i Creepers in Sept. It was truly a golden moment to see captive raised and bred Hawaiian forest birds released into their native habitat! Within moments, the creepers were foraging for food on their own, extracting larvae from ‘ohia branches instead of using the provided food. Talk about hardwired behavior! I’ve heard from the biologists who have been monitoring these birds that they have already seen an unbanded (meaning wild) creeper and ‘Akepa in association with the released birds. Mind you, this kipuka, although very nice habitat and full of other native bird life, is not known to have lots of either species. So, perhaps the released birds may “encourage” wild birds to visit, and perhaps, stay in this forest oasis in the midst of the old lava flows.

by: Alan Lieberman

Sat, 06 Oct 2007 23:45:55 +0000

Yes….isn’t it amazing to think that all of these released birds have been in captivity their entire lives, from the egg onward, and they just knew how to “act” in the wild….amazing! This is what we call “hard-wired”or Instinctive behavior. Not all bird species are as pre-programmed, but fortunately for us (and them) the creeper and akepa just know how to act like creeper and akepa. Let’s hope they show similar natural behavior when it comes time to breed.

Thanks for looking in.

by: Mae in NJ

Sat, 06 Oct 2007 15:11:56 +0000

Congratulations on the success of your on-going reintroduction program. I am formerly from Hawaii and old enough to have seen the land taken from the animals and plants and given over to houses and shopping centers.

I am grateful that CRES is working hard to save our birds and returning them to the wild. How liberating to be
a bird and sit in a ohia tree and be able to fly around without a net to stop my flight. For the first time. At
nine years old!

Wonderful, wonderful. Thank you very much.

by: Alan Lieberman

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 23:25:36 +0000

Hello Margaret… always a pleasure to know you’re looking in. Thanks for being such a loyal follower of the Hawaii blogs. It seems that the Hawaiian forest birds, in general, live a bit longer than their mainland counterparts. There are only a few examples of birds that I’m aware of that have been banded at a known time and location and then recaptured at a later time that were remarkable. I know of three examples. One was a common amakihi that was banded as an adult and then recaptured 13 years later. Another was a palila that was recaptured 18 years after being banded (it was building a nest!), and the third was a po’ouli that was banded as an adult and captured 9 years later. Captive birds under ideal conditions might be expected to live longer. Several of these ‘akepa and creepers in the release cohorts are 8 and 9 years old. For very small songbirds, that would be very old if they were mainland species, but it now seems that perhaps that’s not so very old for a Hawaiian bird. I might add, the breeding adult ‘akepa that are the parents of the two chicks hatched this year (2007) are adults that came into the program as wild eggs and were hatched and reared in 1999, making them 8 years old and breeding like youngsters. It is very interesting the things we are discovering all the time about these wonderful species. Thanks again for your readership.

by: Margaret

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 19:19:52 +0000

Alan, thanks for the update and the exciting news! It is wonderful to hear of successful stories of releasing captive raised creatures into their wild ancestral homeland. The pristine environment sounds ideal for such activities. I was on Hawaii in 1988 between major lava eruptions and flows down the mountainside. The year after we were there even the visitors center was “swallowed up” by lava. It is an incredible biodiverse environment, and the lava creates a very rich environment for plants and animals to come up in following years. These birds are very blessed to have such naturally created pristine environments in which to start their wild lives.

If some of the birds are 9 years when released, how long does that species of bird normally live?