Maui Parrotbill, Photo: © Eric VanderWerf

A recent survey at the Waikamoi Preserve in the forested uplands of East Maui, Hawai'i has revealed numbers of the critically endangered Maui Parrotbill may be double that of the last study there.

Although limited to two weeks, the survey provides encouraging evidence that the bird's numbers are at least stable, but possibly much improved.

The survey was led by Dr. Constance Dusti Becker, an ornithologist and project coordinator for the Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project. Her team estimated that there are approximately 12 parrotbills per square mile of forest in the area surveyed.

“In the midst of all the many conservation problems faced by native birds in Hawai'i, it's nice to hear good news about one of America's rarest species,” said George Wallace, ABC's Vice President of Oceans and Islands, and head of its Hawai'i program. “The future for the parrotbill looks that little bit brighter in the face of this study.”

The parrotbill, a finch in the Hawaiian honeycreeper sub-family, was once widespread on Maui and Moloka'i, but is now only found within a 19-square-mile area on the high, windward slopes of Haleakalā. FWS estimates that only around 500 individuals survive. Like many of Hawai'i's forest birds, it is threatened by invasive mammals and plants and the spread of avian malaria and pox.

More than a quarter of the known habitat for the parrotbill is within the 5,230-acre Waikamoi Preserve, which is managed by The Nature Conservancy under a conservation easement. The Conservancy has initiated habitat management programs that have included fencing out introduced pigs, removing alien plants, and increasing native plants for the benefit of forest birds. These efforts have led to a three-fold increase in native shrub cover over the past 15 years.

Despite the possible increase in Maui Parrotbill densities in the reserve, there is still more work to be done to increase the population to levels found at the species' other stronghold in the state's Hanawi Natural Area Reserve, where the birds occur at a density of about 25 per square mile.