Sheila Conant still remembers the morning she heard the song of the Kauai oo. It was 1975, and she and two friends traveled to the Alakai Plateau on Kauai for a one-week bird-watching trip.

After one failed attempt to get to the area due to pouring rain, they finally made it by helicopter just before another downpour. The next morning, Conant, a retired University of Hawaii biology professor who has studied Hawaiian birds for more than 50 years, recalled scrambling out of her tent and grabbing her binoculars when she first heard the bird’s song. But before she could see the oo, she heard it.

“It’s completely unmistakable. It’s kind of eerie, and the males and females duet,” she said. “It was more thrilling than anything else. Words cannot express how great that felt.”

The last confirmed sighting of the endangered songbird was a little more than 10 years after Conant’s encounter.

The Kaua‘i oo is one of nine endemic species from Hawaii that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared extinct Sept. 29. The agency is proposing to remove 23 flora and fauna nationwide from the endangered species list due to extinction. Hawaii has the most on the list — eight birds and one plant — several of which haven’t been seen in decades and some in more than a century.

Several environmental and wildlife community leaders say that while the news isn’t too surprising, it is still heartbreaking and disappointing. They point out that these endemic species contributed to Hawaii’s unique ecosystem and biodiversity as well as played an important role in Hawaiian culture. They say more needs to be done to protect the hundreds of other endangered species in the islands before it’s too late.

For Conant, who said she has seen six of the eight birds on the list, including the Kauai oo, the loss is even more devastating.

“I’m very discouraged about the whole thing. I’m really angry talking about it,” she said. “I just feel very fortunate that I got to do what I got to do and see what I got to see. I’m sad that other people weren’t able to do that.”

Cultural connections

Lisa “Cali” Crampton, who heads the Kauai Forest Bird Recovery Project, a partnership between UH and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, said she calls many Hawaiian birds “jewels of the rainforest” because they are spiritually and culturally important to Native Hawaiians.

The red feathers from the kakawahie, also known as the Molokai creeper, whose bright wings are said to resemble the appearance of flames; the yellow feathers from the Kauai oo, a small songbird; and more were once woven into capes and lei by Hawaiians. Crampton also pointed out that these birds are inspiration for several hula, mele and olelo noeau (proverbs).

Others are well known for their distinct songs and calls that once filled the islands’ forests. That includes the quivering whistle and the long trill of the Maui akepa, a small green songbird with a small cross bill; and the bell-like call of the Kauai oo, which was last heard in 1987. In 2018, native Hawaiian birds, including the Kauai oo, were the inspiration for an educational music program called the “Symphony of the Hawaiian Birds.” One of the original compositions is based on the melodious call of the oo, the last surviving member of the Mohoidae family. It’s extinction marks the loss of an entire family of songbirds.

The Phyllostegia glabra var. lanaiensis, a flowering plant in the mint family, was fairly unique because it was given a Hawaiian name, ulihi, said Cliff Morden, principal investigator of the Plant Extinction Prevention Program. Although about 30 species in the phyllostegia family are known, he said only a few were given common names.

Ulalia Woodside, executive director of the Nature Conservancy of Hawaii and a kumu hula, also pointed out that when any native bird species is lost, there is also a threat to the native plant that it pollinated. Native Hawaiians considered the upland forest as the sacred realm of the gods, so Woodside said many of these birds, plants and other animals who lived there were also deemed sacred and seen as physical forms of the gods.

Many Hawaiian birds are also identified and included in the Kumulipo, the Hawaiian creation chant, she said.

“Native Hawaiian people and native Hawaiian honeycreepers and other birds have been living together for perhaps over a thousand years,” she said. “Protecting our native honeycreepers means preserving the cultural heritage of Hawaii. They are family members of this place and of our Hawaiian culture.”

Hope for the future

Several environmentalists say many of the nine species from Hawaii were listed too late for recovery efforts to make a difference.

Native forest birds are highly susceptible to avian diseases from mosquitoes, and climate change has exacerbated the problem, creating a breeding ground for more mosquitoes, which thrive in warm environments, they say.

The last confirmed sightings of two listed species — the Kauai nukupuu, a medium-size honeycreeper with a long, decurved bill; and the Phyllostegia glabra var. lanaiensis — were in 1899 and 1914, respectively, so there is likely no one alive today who has seen them, they say.

The Kauai akialoa, Kauai oo, kakawahie, Maui akepa, Maui nukupuu and kamao were all last spotted between the 1960s and the 1990s. And the only one of the nine species on the list that has been seen fairy recently is the poouli. The black-faced honeycreeper was thought to exist in the hundreds on Maui, but its population dwindled due to habitat loss, mosquito-borne diseases and predation by invasive species. Although efforts were made to capture the birds and breed them, the last three poouli died in captivity in 2004.

“Any time we lose a species, it’s a very sad day,” said Morden, who is also deputy director of UH’s Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit, a research hub that focuses on biodiversity and natural resources in Hawaii and the Pacific. “It’s a loss of biodiversity, and it’s a loss of our heritage.”

Maxx Phillips, Hawaii director of the Center for Biological Diversity, pointed out that fewer than 40 endemic bird species remain in Hawaii, most of which are endangered. Hawaii also has the largest share of endangered and threatened species in the country — more than 500. Although efforts have been successful in bringing some species, including the nene, back from the brink of extinction, Phillips said more funding, resources and support are needed.

A 2016 study published in the Biological Conservation journal found that species waited a median of 12 years to receive safeguards. And nearly 50 species have gone extinct waiting for protections, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. Another 2016 study by the center also showed that Congress appropriates about 3.5% of the funding that the Fish and Wildlife Service estimates is needed to recover endangered species. About 1 in 4 of these species are allotted less than $10,000 per year for recovery efforts.

“These numbers are just heartbreaking, and a very startling reminder that we are currently in an extinction crisis,” Phillips said. “And Hawaii is on the front lines of that. (But) it doesn’t need to be that way.”

Along with partnering with community groups, the Fish and Wildlife Service’s work to protect endangered species includes installing predator-proof fencing to protect seabirds, waterbirds and snails; restoring habitats on public and private lands; and preventing the spread of invasive species, such as the brown tree snake, said Megan Nagel, spokeswoman for the agency’s Pacific Islands region.

Phillips pointed to recovery efforts by the center and others in the community that are also trying to save Hawaii’s remaining endangered species. She said the center is advocating for President Joe Biden’s administration to declare the extinction crisis a national emergency, which would add more resources to recovery work. The nonprofit also filed a lawsuit last year against the Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to designate critical habitat and to develop a recovery plan for the threatened iiwi.

Jonathan Sprague, Pulama Lanai’s co-director of conservation, said that although it was too late for the Phyllostegia glabra var. lanaiensis, which was last seen on Lanai in 1914, the organization is ramping up efforts to protect the 40 other endangered species on the island. One of their biggest projects is with the endangered uau, or Hawaiian petrel. Because Lanai is home to the seabird’s densest remaining colony, Sprague said the organization has installed more than 150 cat traps and 800 self-­resetting rat traps. It is also working with the Fish and Wildlife Service to install fencing on 80 acres to keep predators out of the endemic bird’s habitat.

Crampton of the Kauai Forest Bird Recovery Project said it, along with other groups, is working to save two honeycreepers on Kauai, both of which have only a few hundred birds remaining. She said that includes breeding and raising the birds in captivity, controlling rodents in the wild, removing weeds and recovering the birds’ habitat.

Woodside of the Nature Conservancy of Hawaii said she is optimistic about the nonprofit’s forest management and restoration work to help protect some of Hawaii’s remaining native birds. The conservancy established its first preserve on Molokai in 1982 and then another in East Maui in 1983. Through efforts to remove threats and other invasive species, she said the East Maui preserve is one of the last safe havens for the endangered kiwikiu, or Maui parrotbill.

At the conservancy’s Kona Hema Preserve on Hawaii island, she said it’s restored native koa and ohia forest and planted hundreds of native plants, which are sources of food for native birds. Woodside said they’ve recently discovered the return of the endangered alawi, and regularly hear the call of the threatened iiwi.

Hanna Mounce and Rachel Kingsley of the Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project, a partnership with UH, DLNR and the Fish and Wildlife Serv­ice, said past efforts to try to protect the poouli, which included restoring critical habitat, installing fencing and removing invasive species, spurred current work for other native birds.

They are now part of a massive project with 12 other agencies and organizations that seeks to reduce mosquitoes and avian disease. While they couldn’t help to save the poouli, they said they are hopeful for Hawaii’s other endangered species.

“Hawaii is unique in the fact that most of what is found here is endemic. If we think of the islands as intricately woven tapestries made up of these threads of unique species, language and culture, each strand matters and comes together to form the tapestry. (But) once we start taking those strands away, we are left with large gaps,” Kingsley said. “A lot of times Hawaii gets painted as the extinction capital of the world, but we still have hope. There is still work going on to save what is left. That’s really important.”

DECLARED EXTINCT

Nine endemic species from Hawaii that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently declared extinct:

SPECIES YEAR LISTED LAST CONFIRMED AS ENDANGERED SIGHTING

1. Kauai akialoa 1967 1969

2. Kauai nukupuu 1970 1899

3. Kauai oo 1967 1987

4. Kamao 1970 1987

5. Maui akepa 1970 1988

6. Maui nukupuu 1970 1996

7. Poouli 1975 2004

8. Kakawahie 1970 1963

9. Phyllostegia 1991 1914 glabra var. lanaiensis

———

Jayna Omaye covers ethnic and cultural affairs and is a corps member of Report for America, a national serv­ice organization that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under­covered issues and communities.