The federal government will soon list the endangered Oahu elepaio as a bird species distinct from other elepaio in what environmentalists describe as an attempt to better protect them.
The change takes effect Wednesday.
The Oahu elepaio, or Chasiempis ibidis, found only on Oahu, is one of three elepaio species endemic to Hawaii. The other two are the Hawaii elepaio, or Chasiempis sandwichensis, found on Hawaii island, and the Kauai elepaio, or Chasiempis scalteri, on the Garden Isle. The federal government lists only the Oahu elepaio as endangered.
According to a lawsuit filed in September by the Hawaii nonprofit Public Trust Conservancy, there were an estimated 1,261 Oahu elepaio in 2012, down about 50 percent from the bird’s population in the 1990s.
The Public Trust Conservancy is suing the federal government for continuing to list the Oahu elepaio as an elepaio subspecies, even after the American Ornithologists’ Union recognized the bird in 2010 as a distinct species.
Two months after the PTC filed its lawsuit, the Pacific islands office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it was planning to change the Oahu elepaio’s listing by March.
The Fish and Wildlife Service told the court Friday that it submitted the change Feb. 11.
The Conservancy says changing the Oahu elepaio’s designation to a distinct species will afford it greater protection from extinction by encouraging lawmakers to provide more funding to keep the brown tree snake out of Hawaii. The snake has already decimated the bird populations on Saipan and Guam.
The government says recognizing the Oahu elepaio as a distinct species will not afford it any more protection because it is already listed as endangered.
The Conservancy says as a distinct species, the Oahu elepaio can be the named plaintiff in lawsuits against the government if advocates feel not enough is being done to prevent the bird’s extinction. In 1978 the endangered palila, or finch-billed Hawaiian honeycreeper, was the named plaintiff in a successful lawsuit against the state.
