As conservation officials prepare to reintroduce the alala to the wild for the first time in nearly 15 years, state wildlife biologist Fern Duvall is quietly rooting on the sidelines.

The scientist who was hired to lead the state’s Hawaiian crow recovery efforts more than 30 years ago is one of the few people alive who has observed the alala in its natural habitat.

He describes the experience as magical.

“They are absolutely incredible. They are just amazing,” he says of a species known for its intelligence and memory. “I really want to see these birds in the wild again.”

Duvall might get his chance as conservation officials gear up to reintroduce the critically endangered bird into Puu Makaala Natural Area Reserve near Hilo.

The release, expected to occur in the next couple of weeks, represents a milestone for the ongoing recovery effort by San Diego Zoo Global, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife ­Service and state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

While the Hawaiian crow has been extinct in the wild since 2002, the captive breeding program has performed quite well over the last decade or so.

Following another above-average breeding season, featuring the production of 19 chicks, there are now 130 alala living at the Keauhou and Maui bird conservation centers, managed by the San Diego Zoo on the Big Island and Maui, respectively.

Prepared for takeoff

Now, after careful and deliberate planning, five alala have been handpicked to be the first among their species to go boldly into a landscape that hasn’t seen a crow in nearly a decade and a half.

Like astronauts preparing for a mission to the moon, the birds have been poked and prodded, subjected to a battery of health tests and examined for suitability.

They have also undergone predator-avoidance training — necessary to teach the danger represented by the Hawaiian hawk, or io, a feared alala predator, and to respond with evasive action.

Scientists say anti-predator behaviors in wild animals can be lost after only a few generations in captivity, so it’s likely the remaining alala do not know they need to avoid the hawk.

Meanwhile, a spacious outdoor flight aviary has been under construction at the release site to allow the chosen five, all males, to stretch their wings and develop their flight muscles in a setting that allows them to acclimate to their new surroundings.

“The exact date of the release depends on when staff feel the birds are ready, as well as a number of other factors like weather reports, etc.,” said Christina Simmons, spokeswoman for San Diego Zoo Global. “Our biologists are working to ensure they have the best chance once they go into the forest.”

A second release with seven mostly young females, also hatched this year, is planned for January.

Each bird will be outfitted with tiny radio and GPS transmitters and be monitored by staff every day.

The plan is to release 12 birds a year over the next five years.

“It depends on how the birds do. It’s a constant learning process,” said John Vetter, the state’s forest bird recovery coordinator.

Vetter said the plan could change depending on what threats are encountered. Releasing them at other sites may be considered in the future as well, he said.

40-year milestone

For the state, the upcoming release is a major achievement in its 40-year effort to save the alala, a species once so common that they were considered pests.

But by the 1970s, scientists realized the alala was moving toward extinction, the victim of predators, including rats, mongooses and the native hawk, and diseases such as avian malaria.

The state and federal government over the years have poured millions into the program in an attempt to save the bird. In the early years the program was hobbled by inbreeding and landowners who blocked scientists from adding to the captive flock’s genetic diversity.

A lawsuit filed by the National Audubon Society in 1991 led to a settlement that gave biologists access to the Kona forest where the birds were last known to exist in the wild.

By then, the decline of the alala in the wild was precipitous, and even the injection of some 20 captive-bred birds from 1993 to 1998 couldn’t save the wild population. The last known pair of alala disappeared in 2002.

Donna Ball, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist and member of the Alala Working Group, said the birds reintroduced in the 1990s were thrown into a world where the odds were stacked against them. A degraded forest was largely missing its fruit-producing understory, where the alala finds much of its food.

The lack of sufficient understory also offered no cover to hide from the io, she said.

Ball, who currently works at Hawaii island’s Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge, was among the federal biologists assigned to monitor the wild alala during the ’90s. She said it was frustrating to watch them struggle. The disappearance of the final two birds was heartbreaking.

But now she said she’s excited about the future. The remote Puu Makaala forest is in an area that has been managed for more than two decades to promote a healthy native landscape. It is fenced and free of damaging pigs, sheep and cows and has a dense understory with lots of food ripe for the plucking.

“It gives the birds a real chance,” Ball said.

What’s more, the owners of tens of thousands of forested acres, including Kamehameha Schools, have agreed to cooperate in the project, giving the birds lots of room to roam and offering access to scientists and the managers who are monitoring the birds, she said.

Vetter said the project is releasing younger birds into the wild because they were found to have a greater survival rate in the releases that occurred in the 1990s. While the older birds become territorial, the younger ones tend to flock together.

“The more birds together, the more eyes there will be to look out,” he said.

Smartest of birds

Charismatic, clever and recently shown to be adept users of tools, alala employ an astounding array of calls and vocalizations, more than any other raven or crow.

“They are the pinnacle of the bird world,” said Duvall, the Maui wildlife biologist and former head of the state’s alala recovery program. “They are the primates of the bird world, the gorillas, orangutans and chimpanzees. Their intelligence and social structure is unparalleled.”

Duvall, who studied the crow for his doctorate and worked with crows professionally in Europe before coming to Hawaii, said the alala is unlike any other bird.

“You can almost see their intellect. You connect with them,” he said.

Duvall said he remains “guardedly optimistic” about the future of the species. From experience, he knows there are many obstacles that lie in their way.

“Reintroducing them in the wild is something they’ve got to do,” he said. “People will so benefit from seeing them.”