Rare Guam kingfisher hatches at Smithsonian

Dana M Williams  Pacific Daily News

Published 1:32 p.m. UTC Jun 1, 2018

One of the rarest birds in the world - a Guam kingfisher - recently hatched at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Virginia, the institute announced Thursday.

Only 140 of the birds exist in the world, and none live in the wild. All of the birds are descended from 29 individuals that were placed in human care in the 1980s to save the species from extinction.

The chick, which hatched May 17, is the 19th Guam kingfisher hatched by the institute. 

According to the institute, the birds are notoriously hard to breed, and the new chick's parents were not displaying appropriate parenting behaviors. The chick has been living in an incubator and is being hand-raised.

The chick is being fed a diet of chopped mice and crickets, mealworms and anoles, the institute said.

The last time a Guam kingfisher hatched at the institute was 2014

Source  

Bird-slaying snakes ravage island forests too: study

March 8, 2017 by Marlowe Hood 

The venomous brown treesnake can grow up to three metres in length 

A non-native snake species that has already wiped out most of Guam's tree-dwelling birds is also decimating the Pacific island's forests, researchers said Wednesday. 

Growth of new trees on the US island territory may have dropped by as much as 92 percent due to the snake's presence, they reported in the journal Nature Communications.

The findings show that the devastation wrought worldwide on island wildlife by invasive species—especially snakes, rodents and mosquitoes—may be far greater than previously suspected, the authors warned.

"The full impact of the brown treesnake invasion, and the loss of birds, is still unfolding," said Joshua Tewksbury, a professor at the University of Colorado and senior author of the study.

"But our results clearly suggest that the indirect effects are going to be large, potentially affecting forest composition and structure."

Birds play a critical role by eating and spreading seeds from tropical trees.

Probably arriving on Guam via a cargo ship just after World War II, the venomous, brown treesnake—scientific name Boiga irregularis—hunts at night and can grow up to three metres in length.

By the mid-1980s, the snake had eliminated 10 of 12 forest bird species native to the island, including the Guam kingfisher and the Guam flycatcher.

The flycatcher is now extinct globally.

One doesn't have to be a scientist or a bird watcher to notice that something is awry, said the study's lead author, Haldre Rogers, an ecologist at Iowa State University.

Rewired ecosystems

"When you're on Saipan"—a neighbouring island where the treesnakes have so far been held at bay—"there is constant bird chatter," she said.

Read more at: 

Rare bird dies at Washington National Zoo

By Martin Weil January 10

However anyone defines a rare bird, one of the feathered flyers residing at the National Zoo seemed to fit the bill. According to the zoo it was one of only 146 members of its species in the entire world.

Given that small population, it was easy to believe that, as the zoo said, of all the birds and beasts in its collection, the bird, a Guam Kingfisher, belonged to the “most endangered species” there.

On Saturday, the zoo said, the bird died. He was 17 years old, the zoo said, making him a survivor among survivors, a long-lived member of the small band who were his avian brethren.

In the words of the announcement made Monday by the zoo, he was “geriatric for his species.”

In Washington, this Guam Kingfisher made his home at the zoo’s Bird House. Before coming to the zoo in July of 2013, he had been spending his blue-backed time at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va.

Members of the species often measure about 10 inches in length, with a prominent, pointed bill that is as long as two inches.

Although the kingfisher had enjoyed a longer life in which to display his cinnamon- colored belly than many of his species, his death was nevertheless sad, the zoo said.

He was not the only Guam kingfisher at the zoo or the Front Royal facility. A report in Smithsonian magazine a little more than five years ago, placed the population at the two places at 10. It noted that at the time of its 2011 publication, two new ones had just been born at the conservation institute.



Continued