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02/06/25 - The 9 Guam Sihek released into the wild on Palmyra Atoll are making historic progress just five months after they returned to the wild for the first time since the 1980s.
Marianas Press spoke with Kayla Baker and Jonny Shepherd, two bird conservation specialists with The Nature Conservancy and Zoological Society of London who are monitoring the birds closely in Palmyra.
“A lot of these birds as they are getting older and maturing are starting to show signs of becoming adults. They are pairing off, they are defending territories,” Shepherd said.
The bird conservation specialists said the first Sihek breeding in the wild in decades could happen this summer.
“They are developing properly,” Baker said. She added that there have yet to be signs of breeding attempts. However, some Sihek are practicing excavation and how to make nests in trees. They admit they did not expect to see this behavior so soon.
“It is a monumental step for these birds,” Shepherd said.
They said all but one of the birds have paired because they are an uneven number.
They are looking forward to the next milestone, which would be sihek laying eggs. Sihek lay one or two eggs per nest.
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Story by Thomas Manglona II
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