Over the weekend, the Guam Sihek returned to the wild for the first time since the 1980s. The Sihek was released on Palmyra Atoll on Saturday, Guam time. 

The first bird to take flight is named Mames, meaning sweet in CHamoru, a male bird making a swift exit from its aviary into its new home sweet home.

“It was a pretty special experience to see them go. Certainly after seeing sihek in captivity for many years, working with them, it didn't seem quite real. Like looking through the binoculars it seemed like I was watching a movie or something. But yeah, it was definitely an emotional experience,” said Erica Royer, Aviculturist at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.

  Photo by Thomas Manglona

The doors of each aviary were opened one by one. The second release of another three birds happened on Sunday. The third release of the final group of three Sihek was delayed to later this week due to heavy rain.

“Some were ready to go right away, others were a little more hesitant and needed a little bit of time to poke their head out of their release hatch and scope things out before they were ready to take that first flight. We have already started tracking. That is going well, albeit challenging, because they have discovered that the trees are much higher perches than they have been used to, so they're having quite a good time 40 to 50 feet up in the canopy,” said Kayla Baker, Senior Bird Conservation Specialist. 

“They all showed their individual behaviors in kind of how they came out of the aviaries a little bit, and then, showed their infamous aggression. They started chasing each other around immediately,” said Johnathan Shepard, Bird Conservation Specialist.

The aviaries will remain open, and food and water will be provided in case they return to them. The release was years in the making, starting with efforts on Guam through the decades to save the Sihek. 

The team will continue to monitor them in the weeks and hopefully, years to come before they can hopefully return to the wild on Guam.

“So now that the birds are released, we're hoping that they will quickly establish territories…and hopefully they will pair up males and females together and breeding pairs, and they will defend that little area from other pairs. And once they do that, generally they'll stick right in that area and that will make it a lot easier for us to then go and find them, because we'll be following them so closely, we'll be following them so closely. We'll be able to really neatly map out those territory lines,” added Baker.

 

  Courtesy/ Mollie Gunther