One of the endangered Hawaii forest bird species that has been identified as a priority species for recovery is the palila, a highland honeycreeper that survives on the slopes of Mauna Kea Volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii (see previous blog, Released Palila Breed on Mauna Kea). In an effort to accelerate the captive propagation and release program, permits were issued to collect five wild birds to bolster and diversify our captive flock. Led by the biologists of the Biological Resources Discipline of the U.S. Geological Survey, two male, two female, and one unsexed bird were mist-netted and brought to the Keauhou Bird Conservation Center (KBCC) for quarantine.

The quarantine process lasts for 30 days or more and it is a procedure to ensure that no new diseases enter the captive program through newly captured wild birds. It is also a way to determine the “base line” diseases that already exist in the wild population before being exposed to the captive birds. Each of the newly arrived birds is assigned a unique band combination, its own cage, and a studbook or registry number. All of the birds are housed on one area in the facility: an area considered off limits to everyone but the person assigned to daily care. The daily routine can be intense: each bird is provided with its own food dish, water dish, clipped fruit, and a cup of nectar. The food dish is full of our captive diet of: fruit cocktail, papaya, egg, birdseed, apple, melon, orange, and other dry food items. The wild palila are also provided with an endless supply of mamane pods, which are their mainstay wild food.

The daily routine begins at 6:30 a.m. Each bird is caught and weighed. Weight loss is the first indication of problems. If the bird loses too much weight, fluids are given subcutaneously. The transition from wild diet to captive diet can be difficult. It was soon apparent that these new palila would need encouragement to learn their new diet, since a reliable mamane supply is neither predictable nor assured. The new birds insisted on eating only mamane pods. We soon learned that as you held the palila in one hand for its daily weights, placed a food item like papaya in front of it, its natural reaction would be to attack, or bite it, and essentially eat from our hands. This feeding technique proved to be very successful and slowly the palila are beginning to eat the captive diet and are beginning to gain back lost weight.

Now that weights are stabilized we can concentrate on the veterinary aspects of their quarantine, which includes taking blood samples and fecal evaluations to ensure their good health and to protect the birds already in our program.

Lisa Komarcyzk is a Research Fellow with the Hawaii Endangered Bird Conservation Program/CRES.

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