Nine birds, considered extinct in the wild, have made a historic flight from Wichita to their new island home in the Pacific Ocean. Sihek, also known as Guam kingfishers, once flourished on the North Pacific island of Guam. However, the accidental introduction of the brown tree snake to the island in the 1940s decimated sihek and other native bird populations.
With the bird species currently only found under human care, the arrival of these sihek to The Nature Conservancy’s preserve and research station at Palmyra Atoll earlier this week brings the Sihek Recovery Program one step closer to their ultimate goal of establishing a wild population of these rare sapphire and cinnamon feathered birds. In just a few weeks these birds, who have been raised at the Sedgwick County Zoo, will become the first sihek in the wild since the 1980s.
First listed under the Guam Endangered Species Act in 1982, the sihek was subsequently added to the US Endangered Species List in 1984, and was officially recognized as being extinct in the wild following the last wild sighting in 1988. Scott Newland, President and CEO of Sedgwick County Zoo, is the Association of Zoos and Aquariums species coordinator for sihek.