In a major conservation victory, birds from an extinct-in-the-wild species that the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden helped re-establish have laid their first eggs in their new home on a remote Pacific island.
In August, nine Sihek, or Guam kingfisher, chicks arrived at their new home at The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC’s) Palmyra Atoll Preserve, about 1,000 miles south of Honolulu. Three of those chicks — all females, named Tutuhan, Sindålu and Fuetsa — were bred at the Cincinnati Zoo as part of the Sihek Recovery Program. Those birds, including some from the Cincinnati Zoo, are now laying eggs, making them the first wild eggs for the species in nearly 40 years.
“This work on Palmyra is something I couldn’t have imagined witnessing in my lifetime, let alone being a part of,” Cincinnati Zoo Senior Aviculturist Aimee Owen said in a press release. “We’re so excited that they’ve all come as far as they have and that Tutuhan — Cincinnati’s first egg, first chick produced and the first chick of the entire project — is now one of the first to produce eggs on the island. Her being “the first of firsts” of this ground-breaking conservation work is a milestone that simply fills us with pride, even beyond playing our role in the first place.”
The Sihek flourished on the North Pacific Island of Guam until the ‘40s when the invasive brown tree snake was accidentally introduced and decimated wild bird populations. In the ‘80s, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) and the Guam Department of Agriculture coordinated emergency rescue efforts and saved 28 Sihek from the wild.
The Sihek Recovery Program, which is made up of leading conservation experts from around the world, has been working for years to re-establish the species in the wild, and 2024 is the first year that facilities housing the rare birds have produced enough healthy chicks to be released. The Cincinnati Zoo received its first Sihek adult in 1982 and has since produced more than 30 chicks. Because of this success, it was invited to be a part of the historical translocation effort that started in 2023.
Now, these eggs show how the birds are flourishing on the Palmyra Atoll, which was chosen to be the first new home of the birds since it’s largely free from predators. The zoo says all the birds — four females and five males — have learned to forage and hunt, formed pairs, established territories, built nests and laid eggs.
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Cincinnati Zoo Helps Re-establish Extinct-in-the-Wild Bird Species
“The short-term goal is to establish a fully self-sustaining Sihek population on Palmyra Atoll,” said Owen. “The ultimate goal is to reestablish a Sihek population on Guam.”
As the mated pairs are less than a year old and it’s their first time incubating and caring for eggs, the zoo says it will likely take a few rounds of egg-laying for the birds to hone their parenting skills and hatch chicks. However, the milestone shows the Siheks’ resilience and the power of conservation in pulling species back from the brink of extinction.
There are currently plans to release even more young Siheks at Palmyra Atoll this summer. You can stay updated on the birds’ progress on the Sihek Recovery Project’s Instagram.
This article appears in Apr 16-29, 2025.
