The aviary on Tuesday announced that a Guam kingfisher hatched on April 19 and took his first flight on May 27. He’ll be part of efforts to someday bring Guam kingfishers back to their home island. 

The Guam kingfisher, known locally as a sihek, was wiped out in its native habitat by the invasive brown tree snake. Biologists rescued 29 of the remaining wild population in the late 1980s, saving the bird from complete extinction. 

Now more than two dozen facilities, including the National Aviary, are part of the Sihek Recovery Program. A handful of the birds, including Mames and Långet, who hatched at the National Aviary, now live on the brown snake-free Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.

Mames and Långet have laid eggs, but they’re not fertile, which the aviary says is common for first-time breeding pairs. It is, however, the first time the species has bred in the wild since the sihek went extinct on Guam, and the hope is that the birds on Palmyra Atoll will eventually hatch chicks outside of human care for the first time in 40 years. 

The ultimate goal is to return Guam kingfishers to their native island once the brown tree snakes can be managed. 

The National Aviary says more updates on the Sihek Recovery Program will come later, including details on what role senior aviculturist Brianna Crane will play in the recovery efforts this fall.