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Great news for strengthening the population of this once extinct-in-the-wild bird

CINCINNATI (May 23, 2025) – The first Sihek, aka Guam kingfisher, chick of 2025 hatched earlier this week at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden! Cincinnati Zoo is one of about two dozen Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA)-accredited facilities that have been working since the 1980s to build a sustainable, managed population of this bird species with the goal to re-establish a population in the wild.

Video of Cincinnati Chick + Keeper Interview | Visual Assets (Siheks on Palmyra Atoll)

“Every chick is vital to the future of this species, and we’re hoping that this is the first of many hatchings to come this year,” said Cincinnati Zoo senior aviculturist Aimee Owen. “As of today, there have been two additional hatchings, one at Sedgwick County Zoo and one at Smithsonian’s National Zoo. We’re hoping that they will be females, since that’s what the Zoo population really needs at this time.”

Last fall, nine young Sihek, including three from Cincinnati Zoo, were translocated from AZA facilities to The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC’s) Palmyra Atoll Preserve, about 1,000 miles south of Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, by the Sihek Recovery Program, a global collaboration of conservationists dedicated to rewilding these magnificent, colorful birds.

“The nine birds are thriving on Palmyra and even laid eggs this year,” said Erica Royer, aviculturist from the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute and vice coordinator of the Sihek breeding program. “In order to focus on maintaining a stable population of the species in human care, we are postponing the next translocation of birds until 2026.This chick from Cincinnati gives us hope that the ex-situ numbers will increase.”

“There are two nesting pairs here that may lay more eggs this season and there are eggs at other Zoos that we hope will hatch.  The goal is to add enough chicks to the AZA population to be in good shape to move more birds to Palmyra in 2026,” said Owen. “So, we have the immediate goal to increase numbers in managed care, the intermediate goal to establish a Sihek population on Palmyra Atoll, and the ultimate goal to reestablish the species on Guam.”

Sihek, as the birds are known by the indigenous CHamoru people of Guam, were decimated when the brown tree snake was accidentally introduced to the islands in the 1940s. As the population crashed, Guam biologists brought 29 Sihek under human care, starting a conservation breeding program in AZA-accredited zoos across the United States (US).

Palmyra Atoll was selected as the home for the first wild Sihek in almost 40 years because it is largely predator-free and fully protected. TNC’s Palmyra Preserve is encompassed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife and by the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument, one of the largest swaths of ocean and islands protected in the world.

The Sihek released at Palmyra Atoll last fall are the result of a cooperative of the following institutions who either contributed eggs to be hatched or staff to assist with their care: Brookfield Zoo Chicago, Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, National Aviary, Sedgwick County Zoo, Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, Tracy Aviary, and ZSL’s London and Whipsnade Zoos.