Aiming for a comeback outside Hawaiʻi island
Hawaiʻi’s critically endangered crow, the ʻalalā, is still alive more than a year after five birds were released into the Kīpahulu Forest Reserve in East Maui in November 2024, according to people involved in the effort.
Keanini Aarona, an avian recovery specialist at the Maui Bird Conservation Center in Olinda, said he felt a mix of anxiety and excitement in the weeks leading up to the release. He described the moment as nerve-wracking while also saying it was exciting because the birds were young and, eventually, could spend more of their lives in the forest than in captivity.
“I feel almost like a parent to them, and sending them out is kind of nerve-wracking,” Aarona said. “But it’s also so exciting, because these birds are so young, and one day there will be a point when they will have spent more of their life out in the forest than they did in captivity.”
Conservationists have been trying to reintroduce ʻalalā to their native habitat for years, but efforts on Hawaiʻi island had not succeeded. The AP report said hopes for the Maui trial rest in part on whether the birds can learn to thrive on the leeward slopes of Haleakalā and eventually soar again above their home island. The effort is also described as the first outside the Big Island.
Tracking foraging and acclimation
Scientists have been monitoring the crows as they learn to forage, expand their flight range, and acclimate to their new environment. The early survival of all five birds has helped researchers refine what to do next in a reintroduction plan that is being run with nonprofit, state, and federal partners.
Tess Hebebrand, an aviculture specialist with the Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project, said the team is preparing to release two more ʻalalā—one male and one female—into the same area. She said the birds were showing natural behaviors and had mild signs consistent with getting a little sick, then recovering.
“The birds are exhibiting a lot of natural behaviors,” Hebebrand said last week from the nonprofit’s office in Upcountry Maui. “They’ve had some mild things where it looks like they got a little bit sick, but then they got better.”
Hebebrand said releasing the additional birds would help researchers learn more about how the species adapts to life in the wild.
Why the ʻalalā matter to the forest
The AP report described ʻalalā as highly social, intelligent, and adept tool users, with unique bristly feathers around prominent bills and larger bodies than mainland crow relatives. It said they have an important ecological role by pruning trees and dispersing native plant seeds, helping the forest continue to grow.
Martin Frye, a research field supervisor for the Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project, said native Hawaiians have long regarded the ʻalalā as ʻaumākua, or family guardians.
Frye also described what has driven the birds into extreme rarity over decades, including habitat loss, introduced diseases, increased contact with humans and other factors. The AP report said the species was declared extinct in the wild in 2002 after a long decline.
Lessons from earlier reintroductions
The last notable attempt to return ʻalalā to the wild came between 2016 and 2020 on Hawaiʻi island, when scientists released 30 ʻalalā from sites inside the Pu‘u Maka‘ala Natural Area Reserve. Some birds survived for years, but others struggled with disease and when caretakers stopped providing supplemental food, Frye said.
The report said scientists paused the effort after the Hawaiian hawk, or ʻio, began hunting the crows. Frye said managers made the difficult decision to remove the birds they could from the forest once the hawks were predating them.
“Once they were getting nailed by this hawk species, the managers made the difficult decision to just pull all the birds that they could get out of the forest, because it wouldn’t serve any purpose to let them be hunted down,” Frye said. “At that point, they’re too valuable to lose to a foregone conclusion like that.”
The AP report also said researchers suspected 25 crows died and recovered 18 bodies, citing a recent study by researchers with the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.
After the pause, the report said researchers began studying whether it could be feasible to release ʻalalā on another island to reduce exposure to predators like the ʻio.
The Maui environmental assessment
A 2024 environmental assessment, according to the AP report, examined the potential effects of releasing ʻalalā in East Maui. It found that while Kīpahulu Forest Reserve has a wetter climate than the birds’ native environment, it contains native fruits the species would forage for on the Big Island. The assessment also concluded it was unlikely the introduced crows would pose a risk to other endangered species in the area.
The report said the assessment acknowledged that it would have been impossible to eliminate the risk of unintended consequences from introducing a non-native species on Maui. It said the alternative would have been to keep known ʻalalā in captivity, where capacity is limited, adding that the birds are expected to continue to lose their wild traits and ability to persist in the wild.
From field aviary to forest
Before the East Maui release, the AP report said the five young ʻalalā spent a few weeks in a field aviary. In that period, they acclimated to wearing GPS trackers, learned to use feeders that would provide extra sustenance while they learned to forage, and settled into their new environment.
The report said the birds were hesitant when the aviary doors opened, but one by one they moved into the forest. Hebebrand described the release day as emotional and said it felt natural to see the birds explore immediately after a long time in captivity.
“There were a lot of emotions on the day that they left the aviary. We were definitely shedding some tears,” Hebebrand said. “Seeing them in a captive setting for so many years and monitoring them for so long, and then just seeing how they immediately started exploring — it just felt really natural. They had their instincts, and they knew what to do. It was really beautiful to see that.”
Monitoring feeding and early breeding signs
According to the AP report, field researchers have spent the last year monitoring the ʻalalā and servicing automatic feeders that regularly dispense fresh fruit and dry food pellets. Hebebrand said the birds will eventually be weaned off food provided by caretakers, while they learn to eat a variety of insects, small animals, native fruits, seeds and other foods found in the forest.
One of the “exciting moments” reported in the AP story came in late 2025, when two of the released ʻalalā paired up and laid an egg together. The report said the birds were still young and were not expected to reproduce yet, and that Hebebrand did not know the egg’s status, but the bird appeared to sit on it for 21 days.
“They went kind of from being just buddies to not buddies anymore, which was interesting to see,” she said. “We don’t know the status of the egg, but she appeared to sit on it the whole 21 days that they sit on an egg. The first time around, it’s not typical that it would hatch … But it’s pretty incredible to see a nest.”
A cultural and ecological responsibility
The AP report also described the ʻalalā’s language and calls, noting dozens of different vocalizations and a nickname for one of the calls, dubbed “the monkey call” by scientists.
Frye said the “voice” of the forest matters for keeping both the habitat and cultural relationship intact. “In the deep past, people picked out that voice from all the voices of the forest,” Frye said.
“We can’t lose that voice. That’s the push. We need that voice to be present in order for the forest to be whole, in order for our relationship to the forest be whole, in order to preserve a link to the past.”
Hebebrand said the responsibility can feel heavy. “I definitely don’t take it lightly. Every single bird that I’ve worked with out here is extremely valuable and special,” she said. “I do love them, and I don’t think of them as just numbers. They all become unique individuals. And I think that is okay to feel that… But you feel the weight of it if something happens. That’s the difficult part of the work — the responsibility that you feel and take home with you.”
Aarona said reintroducing the ʻalalā into the wild is about more than saving an endangered species, and he framed it in terms of Hawaiian culture and reciprocity between people, forest, and birds.
“In Hawaiian culture, everything is full circle. People can’t live without the forest, and the forest can’t live without the birds,” he said. “These birds, they are our ancestors.”
Aarona said he is hopeful that someday there will be ʻalalā soaring in forests that have never known a life in captivity. “I’d probably cry if an egg hatched and they raised it to adulthood,” he said. He added, with a lighter note about the close work involved, “It does feel worth getting pooped on.”
This story was originally published by Honolulu Civil Beat and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.