Photo: Howard Senton | Pexels
A rare species of crow, the ‘alala, is flying free in the wild in Hawaii - the culmination of decades of conservation work on an endangered bird many Native Hawaiians regard as sacred. It is also the latest example of a radical conservation strategy of finding new homes for plants and animal as native habitats dwindle. The species, which is native to Hawaii’s Big Island, can grasp a stick in its beak to dig for morsels of food from difficult-to-reach spots in trees. Between 2016 and 2020, the crows’ caretakers reintroduced 30 ʻalala into the wild on Hawaii’s Big Island but Hawaii’s native hawk, the ‘io, began preying on them. The latest batch of birds — three males and two females — were released on Maui, which is free of hawks, in a spot in the mountains with many of the same native fruits that are on the Big Island.
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