2nd extinct-in-wild Guam kingfisher hatches at National Aviary

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2nd extinct-in-wild Guam kingfisher hatches at National Aviary

2nd extinct-in-wild Guam kingfisher hatches at National Aviary

For the second time this year, a bird that’s extinct in the wild hatched at the National Aviary.

The National Aviary on social media announced the arrival of the second Guam kingfisher of 2025. It’s the younger sibling of the other chick announced a few weeks ago. Both chicks come from parents Kel and Yomuk, who live in the Canary’s Call habitat.

The birds are being hand-raised in the aviary’s behind-the-scenes breeding center. The aviary says it will soon reveal the sex of the older sibling.

Guam kingfishers, known locally as sihek, haven’t been seen in the wild since 1988 after invasive brown tree snakes arrived and decimated the population. About 30 birds were captured and taken to U.S. zoos, where their population has grown.

The aviary is working with the global Sihek Recovery Program to establish a wild population of Guam kingfishers with the hope of returning them home once the threat from brown tree snakes is addressed.

Three Guam kingfishers that previously hatched at the National Aviary were released last year on the predator-free island of Palmyra Atoll, about 1,000 miles south of Honolulu, Hawaii, in the Pacific Ocean.

Two of the birds that hatched in Pittsburgh, Mames and Långet, laid a second clutch of three eggs, which the aviary says is very rare in human care populations. It’s possible Mames and Långet become the first pair to hatch chicks of their own in the wild.

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