Blessing marks start of forest bird field season for conservationists on Garden Isle

A muddy and weary team from the Kaua‘i Forest Bird Recovery Project arrived Friday at Kōke‘e State Park in time for the annual blessing of the field season for conservationists working against the clock to save numerous species of Hawaiian honeycreepers from extinction.

“I think it’s important to have these blessings,” said Kaua‘i Forest Bird Recovery Project field crew leader Tyler Winter. “As the populations of these birds diminish and we must go further and further into the field to access them, so much of our time is spent in the field, we don’t have much time to interact with people. Being at a blessing like this is super important because it’s one of the few times we get to see the impacts these birds have on people and their important cultural significance. It also helps with our new hires we take into the field to have them see the engagement that’s going on with the forest birds.”

During Friday’s blessing, Kaua‘i Forest Bird Recovery Project and the Kaua‘i Invasive Species Committee had outreach and education displays set up under tents, along with experts to answer visitors’ questions.

The hālau from Ka ʻImi Naʻauao O Hawaiʻi Nei Institute, which has performed ‘oli and chants to kick off the annual forest bird field season for more than a decade, also performed during the event.

The hālau performed several original mele, including one that describes the beauty and characteristics of several at-risk species like, ‘akikiki and kiwikiu, two of the honeycreepers expected to completely disappear from Hawaiian forests imminently.

“We made the commitment years ago and we’ve learned a lot about the birds we didn’t know,” said kumu Keahi Manea before last Friday’s blessing.

Kim Rogers of Kaua‘i Invasive Species Committee said that while her organization typically deals with issues such as rapid ʻōhiʻa death, there’s a clear nexus between forest health and biodiversity and the plight of Hawai‘i’s forest birds.

“When people think about fauna in our forests, they think about our precious forest birds,” said Rogers. “ʻŌhiʻa and the forest birds have a very reciprocal relationship in that the trees provide homes, food and nectar. In return the forest birds help pollinate ʻōhiʻa lehua. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship. You can’t have one or talk about one without having the other.”

Winter spent the first four-day long field excursion with a team doing predator control work and bird captures. The teams are trying to bring as many of the extremely endangered birds into safety as possible, while efforts to control avian malaria-carrying mosquitos ramp up.

Once the disease threat is under control, the hope is to return honeycreeper species to the wild, such as the remote mountainous areas in the Kōke‘e, Waimea Canyon, Alaka‘i Plateau regions of Kaua‘i.

“This season is going to be really cool. We’ll be traveling a lot across the Alaka‘i Plateau. Last season we did a really focused recovery effort for the ‘akikiki, as such we spent a lot of time in areas that we knew were good habitat and high quality for those birds,” Winter said. “This year we’re doing more of a survey of the entire plateau. The dream would be if there are ‘akikiki still out there or other pockets of endangered species we’ll be able to encounter them and hopefully gain more information on how to protect them.”

Hawai‘i Gov. Josh Green and Kaua‘i Mayor Derek Kawakami each proclaimed 2024 as Makahiki o Nā Manu Nahele, or The Year of the Forest Birds. That recognition and Friday’s blessing are giving encouragement and hope to the teams working to save the birds.

All the researchers and conservationists involved in forest bird recovery projects, especially on Kaua‘i and Maui, say they are realistic but hopeful.

Winter added that to work in conservation and protect these species, you have to be.

“We’ll have keen eyes and ears out for them,” he said. “That’s what we’ll be doing this year.”