The Majestic Birds of Hawai’i (Full Episode) | Extraordinary Birder with Christian Cooper

Foreign Damn look at all those Ravens I'm Christian Cooper and I am a birder [Music] That was cool my dad was a biology Teacher and gave me my first pair of Binoculars when I was about 10 years old And I never put him down Wow not something I see in my life now I'm traveling the globe to explore the World of birds That's amazing it's like a cloud and Their relationship with us those of us Who don't have wings And along the way I'll show you what I Adore about these these crazy smart here First look at the outside world dazzling Is fantabulous and super powered Feathered creatures [Applause] [Music] Hawaii an enchanted land of sun Surf and All the Aloha you can handle But if you step away from the resorts You'll find another Hidden Side to this Tropical Paradise a wild colorful one With active volcanoes lush green Rainforests and birds Galore birds so Unique you won't find them anywhere else On earth oh my God Who will vomit out any competition until Humans arrived and brought invasive Species with them which is why the birds Here are so incredibly special so I've

Come to the big island of Hawaii to Discover some of these extraordinary Creatures and meet their human helpers [Music] I'm here at hilo's zoo to find out about One of Hawaii's most endangered birds The alala or as it's known in the Mainland the Hawaiian Pro now you may Ask yourself what is a burger doing at a Zoo you may ask yourself what does a Crow have to do with Hawaii we're gonna Find out all about that and also what This place is doing to bring the alala Back from the brink Kyle arakaki is the zoo supervisor at Hilo's Pana Eva zoo and today he wants Me to meet one of his very best Feathered Friends I'm gonna introduce you to loliana Liliana is our 10 year old male 10 years Old Are they sending any particular signal Or sign Typically we've come to understand that As their stranger gender call oh really Yes so they're like who the heck is this Guy basically yeah I do speak a little Corvid yes can I try to speak back to Him give it a shot [Music] He's like that was idiotic Hawaiian Crows can be chatty because there are Some serious brains behind those beady Little eyes these guys know how to use

At least 24 different calls to Communicate they also have great Memories recognized faces and are Incredibly resourceful Allah make being Called a bird brain a huge compliment So how many of these guys are in the Wild are currently zero none yeah none At the moment not long ago the total Number of wild alala dropped below 80 in The forest habitats they prefer on the Island invasive Predators disease and Habitat loss had taken a serious toll on The population So in the 1970s scientists began Bringing individual wild crows into Conservation programs with the hopes of Literally saving the species so the only Allahs left are all in captive breeding Programs thankfully it's working and There are now more than 110 alala and Facilities across the big island in Maui Including this guy aloliana tends to be A little more reserved when it comes to Interaction but he is a lot more Mischievous when it comes to his items He'll tend to destroy them almost like a Dog might tear your house apart we had a Native plant in here that was fruiting Loliana didn't know that it was food oh Really until I picked one and ate one And then he actually came down and Looked at it and started picking off and By the end of the day there was nothing Left wow the goal is to eventually send

The birds raised in the captive breeding Program into the wild so there may come A day when they've gotta make it on Their own to give them a wing up you Might say they've got a master basic Survival skills like finding food Loliana however is not a candidate for Release but is still taking part in Wild Crow school and today I'm a substitute Teacher let's go hide some treats okay Food Glorious Food mealworms wow beef Slices yeah and we have wow dead mice Not exactly my idea of brunch but for Loliana it's a five-star Feast oh Someone's now As you can see on these locks we have Some holes in them so we'll hide some of These little treats in there all right You're gonna make me touch mealworms With my hand I am grossed out But I'll do it for the birds These tests may seem like fun and games To a curious Crow but they're teaching Them the skills that a captive bread Crone needs to thrive in the wild get in There there you go now let's see the Bird fish you out Go for it Liliana you got this [Music] Oddly enough loliana doesn't seem that Interested in the mealworm treat that We've hidden for him I think we're being played I think we Are

We can try one of these mice is he more Likely to go for a mouse This is actually loliana's favorite Treat oh it's mice yeah it's mice Interesting We're gonna up the ante with a tasty Mouse morsel but we're not gonna make it Easy so we're gonna play the equivalent Of a shell game we're gonna make sure Liliana sees that we have a mouse and Then we're both gonna pretend to hide The mouse somewhere but only one of us Will actually hide the mouse we'll see How attentive and how exacting loliana's Powers of observational For you thank you This is so mean All right we mean humans are now gonna See if we faked out Anala [Music] [Laughter] So loliana is like What did they do [Music] Which one will loliana go for first [Music] Turns out you've got to get up pretty Early in the morning to outsmart a Hawaiian crow for a while there I wasn't Sure which one he was going to go for And then he was like no over here this Is the one don't you bird careful me Um Liliana thank you nice to meet you and

You're too smart for your own good Yeah it's fun and games but it's also Important for their survival it's the Rarest Corvette in the world and I would Feel bereft if it was gone from the wild Forever all these people are putting in All these efforts and all these Resources and it's a great thing it's It's it's what it's all about My next stop couldn't be more different Than the zoo it's wild like really wild I'm heading to the puu makaala Natural Area reserve a remote protected Forest High up on the slopes of maunaloa the Largest active volcano on Earth you Won't find any cotton candy or crowds Here in fact you'll hardly see any People at all But there are birds everywhere Hey Brett hey Aloha Chris if you're a Lloyd of the Rings type getting invited Here is the birding equivalent to being Given a guided tour of Rivendell by Elrond himself elrond in this case is Biologist Brett nainoa Mossman it is Striking I also I'll give you that yeah He's gonna help me find two types of Hawaiian Birds that can't be found Anywhere else on Earth the omaho And the mysterious Um so if you don't mind I'm gonna have You carry a couple of these bird bags And a couple speakers and then they're Gonna go out and try to capture a couple

Of these birds sounds like a plan [Music] Brett's job involves protecting some of The rarest Forest Birds which aren't Easy to find you know what you're Listening for my ears don't know what I'm listening for but luckily I've heard That he's a little bit of a bird Whisperer [Music] Yeah akiopolis already calling back to Us There's no other bird species on the Planet that has a bill structure that is Identical or even similar to theirs wow Akis are bright yellow Forest birds that Have a totally unique bill that's kind Of like a Swiss Army knife Thicker bottom part to hammer into the Bark of the tree like a woodpecker Then they use the more refined curved Upper Bill to dig out fatty grubs It's cool to watch if you see anaki Oh there that was the Ikea pullout I Just whistled right there if being the Key word Occupied are really difficult Birds to Track and follow in the forest why do They cover so much distance because They're feeding on these large grubs They have to just cover a lot of ground In order to find them so the best way to Find akis is really to listen for their Sounds you can actually hear their

Tapping just like a woodpecker being With Brett is like mainlining Information on these birds so I'm just Like absorbing it through my pores I'm ready for some birds show me the Feathers let's do it Today we're not just here to see the Birds we're also here to catch them for Research Brett is doing so we'll be Using Nets but to get to the Nets we'll Have to hoof it whoa You absolutely have the right Footwear Me not so much Now you might get a little muddy The first net that we set up Wow these are the tallest beds I've ever Seen yeah Forest birds are High Flyers and like to Hang out way up in trees so to catch Them some of our Nets need to reach Almost 50 feet up into the canopy it's a Test of my manual dexterity I'm failing So Chris I don't know if you can hear it But there's a juvenile like calling it's Like a chew Chew and is that like hey Mom and Dad Feed me yes exactly basically for the Whole day they follow their parents Around doing that choo choo call so They're like teenagers everywhere Exactly Excellent that net is ready to catch Birds so we'll go set the other two Nets Up okay

Catching an Aki isn't easy because there Are only about 2 000 of them left But any we get will give us incredibly Valuable insight into the health of all The birds here good we've got multiple Akiopal calling around us I think we've There's probably two pairs in the area Right now oh wow akis and many other Birds that live in the forests are Susceptible to a serious mosquito-borne Disease avian malaria Guidos aren't native to Hawaii so many Hawaiian Birds never evolved resistance To the diseases they spread and just one Bite from an infected mosquito can be Fatal so if you can just kind of hold it Up from the bottom so the goal today is To test the birds that live here for Malaria and gather data that scientists Can use to help the Birds fight the Disease Which means we gotta do some big league Bird catching okay so if you can help me And stick one of these in a tree okay We're going to broadcast the call of an Extra Macho Aki to rile up the locals And hopefully catch the elusive bird Most people never get to set foot in This place so I consider myself hugely Privileged to be here and hugely Privileged to be in the presence of some Of these species even if some of them Frustrate me by not giving me the Incredible views I want all the time

It's one thing to say you're going to Catch a bird and it's another to Actually catch one because you're Basically trying to trick a wild animal Whose survival instincts are already on High alert Okay yeah the bird is here so he's he's Up in this country he's kind of hard to See but that call that double note That's him wow I'm deep in a remote rainforest on the Big island of Hawaii where we're playing A game of cat and mouse with a bird so Chris do you mind going on this side of The net I'll go to this side okay and Then we're just gonna kind of stay Hidden and hope that we can bring him Down okay They're here and we're hoping to get one Of them into the net we can see him we Can hear him But can we catch him They just flew off into that more Distant Cola We almost got one netted but it Outwitted us it was like oh no no no no I see what you're doing here and I'm not Having it We may have struck out on our Aki quest For the day the birds are not being Cooperative yet hopefully that will Change but Brett and I are gonna check The rest of the Nets to see if we've Caught the other Forest bird I came here

To see the Omaha [Music] Foreign So here you can see a clear sign of a Model because some of these berries have Been picked off this is the native Raspberry yes exactly and these are kind Of a small example but they can be Larger than a golf ball yeah they're Huge yep there are a lot more a model Than akis on this island and the berries Prove they're around here somewhere We've just got to find them I know that if I looked around here with Matrix Vision and I could see the code Of all the living things it would be the Most unique code you could ever see Because everything here is so Genetically distinct so not found any Place else and that would be an Incredible way to experience this place Oh there was an old model kind of that Kind of that that kind of frog-like Sound Um there are these big heavy birds as They're flying through the canopy Way up in the canopy everything just Moved to earth oh yep that's no model And so he's he just went right into the Thick of it but that was an Omaha for Sure I know he just went right into the Thick of it That's two hard strikes for me and Brett They have stealth technology because

They move and then yeah but luckily his Team has finally hit Pay Dirt hey guys We got a bird oh perfect we just Captured an omato back at the banding Station So we're gonna see what sort of data It'll give us Which one's the Omaha okay perfect Wow look at that Finally I get a good look and an Omaha Exactly Yomato is a great catch for a bunch of Reasons for one it's a native bird and One with a vital job to do here in the Forest these guys are really important Because they are a frugivore frugivore Means they eat fruit here in Hawaii we Have more fruiting plants than almost Anywhere else in the world really yeah And part of that is because the plants Have evolved to take advantage of these Fruit eating birds to spread their seeds Throughout the forest The Amato is now the only native Frugivore left here on the big island of Hawaii and it's not found anywhere else In the world by dispersing native seeds They're helping maintain the forest Which helps all the endangered birds who Live here Now that Brett's Got A Bird in Hand I Can kind of see what that drab coloring In the depths of the forest why it is so Hard to spot an Omaha yeah their only

Little splash of color is in their feet To get these bright yellow topaz oh look At that yeah I would never have noticed The bright yellow topaz Now it's time to check this bird for Malaria which means drawing a little Blood Can be quite challenging to get the Blood from these guys But when it comes to testing for the Deadly disease an omao is a valuable Bird the omato in particular are Sedentary Birds they don't move very Much and they are resistant to malaria So this bird has a much higher Probability of having malaria in its System so that's a really valuable Sample Now that she's banded and tested we can Send her back to her home high up in the Treetops Just give her a nice little grip and Then you'll just go ahead and release Her Perfect That's what you like to see nice strong Flight It's finally time for a little bit of Extracurricular rare Hawaiian bird Watching I want to see if I can spot Some of the other chatty little birds I've been hearing in the forest now Who's making all the noise over there it Sounds like there's a family group of

Alavi Oh there's the elapio right there oh Yeah oh and an alavi so alavi is right Above the yellow pile Oh my gosh oh That's a great look yeah Well the elapio is right next to it just Preening Almost in the same binocular field yeah Yeah that is that's amazing [Music] Oh there goes out of E That was a great view it was sitting Right in the sun holding still in Perfect light so you can see all the Colors Forest birds are really hard you're Hearing so many things and your appetite Is wetted and you want to see each and Every single one of them and most of Them you know you miss you just can't Get on them so to get so many Forest Birds that are so elusive is quite a Thrill actually there's so much here to Be protected and preserved it's a real Magical place and a real important place For Hawaii Catching and banding Birds gets you good Hard data but sometimes Our Feathered Island friends need a little more Hands-On health So I'm heading to the Hawaii Wildlife Center the only place in the islands Dedicated to rehabilitating native Hawaiian Birds I'm eager to see what

Species they have what they're doing to Help them recover and to hopefully lend A helping hand This place is a Lifeline for hundreds of Native birds with nowhere else to go And today Wildlife rehabilitator Heidi Franz has got an awful lot of little Mouths to feed so she's putting me to Work so these are our monologu or our White turns you are beautiful these are All orphans and they're all juveniles All babies so they come in a variety of Different colors and fluffiness right Now Are sea birds that love to nest in the City of Honolulu on the nearby island of Oahu but they're not too particular About how they do it the manoaku in Honolulu they just pick a tree branch And they just lay an egg on a tree Branch and call it a day so what does it Say The parents are spectacular Navigators Who can fly up to 120 miles in a single Day to find fresh fish for their babies But sometimes while Mom and Dad are out Looking for dinner the babies lose their Grip and fall right out of the Treetops And that's how these little guys wind up Here Adorable and hungry So we're gonna go ahead and try and feed This one she's unhappy right now because She has not gotten efficient I've gotta

Admit I'm a little nervous about feeding Her because this fish is practically as Big as she is This is not gonna fit down her throat it Will I promise [Music] I'm at a rehab facility for native Hawaiian Birds trying to feed a very Small bird a very big fish [Laughter] My own eyes I would not believe this Would go down such a tiny Bird's gullet They're very good at taking these fish There you go good All right You're greedy I'm a growing baby I need my fish so Then we're gonna go ahead and we'll feed Everybody else This time you can try flipping your fish Around and going with the tail they may Be cute but these little birds are also Surprisingly opinionated they do all Have different personalities different Styles of eating so they have their Preferences just like our toddlers are Human babies monoku can be incredibly Picky so you can see she doesn't really Want to take that too much she's like I Don't want it I don't want it These fluffy white turns are only meant To stay here temporarily and they'll Soon be back home on Oahu where about 2 300 of them currently live

The center does have one full-time Resident who's also the Island's top Avian Predator we're meeting someone Very special makaiyo makaiyo is a Hawaiian Hawk and veterinarian Juan Guerra is going to introduce us all Right let's go meet him all right He's freaking gorgeous Hawaiian Hawks Also called EO or a symbol of Hawaii's Great kings and queens These days they're the only Hawks left On the islands and they rule over them From the very top of the bird food chain EO are also special for another reason They're considered to be al-makua a kind Of spirit God that represents a beloved Ancestor who comes back to their family In the form of an animal like the noble Eel I love that black mask he kind of has Around the eyes Came to the Wildlife Center in September Of 2019 with a badly injured wing and Damage to his right eye the eye injury Made it so that he can't see out of that Eye IO need to be able to use both eyes For binocular vision a lot of birds have Their eyes sort of on the side of their Head so they can see as much around as Possible because they want to spot Predators but when you are a predator You want your two eyes in front because That overlapping field of vision helps You judge distance and allows you to

Catch prey because he can't hunt he Can't be released so makayo is in Training to become an ambassador bird Who can teach humans about his species And the importance of protecting Hawaiian Birds So it's not just his enrichment but Enriching the lives of students here Here in on Hawaii yeah so so that they Learn about their native birds yeah that That's the goal it's education [Music] Is doing well at the center and he seems More at home here every day we work with Him on a daily basis we wanted to trust Us but he's still a wild Hawk at heart Happy to be working with Juan He needs to show that he can be just as Comfortable around Strangers Like Me So today I'm going to help out Juan and Makayo with a little trust exercise a Round of glove training Come over to this area raise up your Your arm [Music] I saw him look at you right away like What After many Hard work Juan has gotten the wild Headstrong Predator comfortable enough To fly to him But is he trusting enough to fly to me [Music] [Music]

How was that that was great success man He's a beautiful animal I can see why The uh Hawaiian royalty considered him a Symbol of them He's a a great bird and I think he knows That and hopefully one day soon other People will be able to find out what a Great bird he is I've got one last assignment at the Center for the day and it's a little Nevada than my last job This is our water bird aviary so these Are where we house or ninis Nene or Hawaiian goose is Hawaii state Bird and the rarest goose in the world Unlike their Canadian cousins they don't Migrate so this is the only place where They can be found These birds love Hawaii's natural Grasslands its pastures and lava Plains But there's nothing they like better Than a nice Green Grass Golf Course and That can be a little bit of a bogey for These birdies [Music] Pretty yeah their neck is gorgeous these Are our Nene patients all three of these Actually have some sort of leg injury What's causing these leg injuries all Right so these birds are from the golf Courses so we could only assume that it Might be golf ball related So we're going to do a checkup on a Couple of these Nene's the goal is to

Just see how they're doing and how well They've healed from their injuries but First we've got a Wrangle them I'm gonna Try and go in there with a net okay We'll just try our best So I'll give this to you all right all Right Um Okay This should be interesting I'm at the Hawaii Wildlife Center Attempting to catch a NeNe My first ever wild goose chase and Trying not to look as silly as a you Know what This is a pool you will go straight Through oh so make your way around this Important information that is important Information yeah Heidi okay so it looks Like Silver's gonna take off All right oh that was easier than I Thought Now you can start putting that towel Over her head it's going to help her Calm down right okay great there we go Teamwork Oh And then you're gonna tuck her into your Side like a little yeah like a football Hold we call this a bird burrito Now that we've got our Goose it's time For her health checkup put her on the Scale yes [Music]

Okay and then she is 1.59 kilograms so We're gonna make a note on that Um it's her right leg she fractured two Bones in her leg this all feels nice and Stable good so and if you want to feel That too this is her bone right here and You can feel that callus right there Yeah I do feel the cow so if you come up Higher there's a sharp Port right there That's the other break so her exam Looked really good Her Bones have healed Nicely she's in a good body weight Um we're looking like we're going to be Able to release her later in the week so We would love to have you come with us I'm in all right it's wonderful to see What they're doing here because they Work with the native birds and when you Are in the position that Hawaii is in Every individual matters The team at the Hawaii Wildlife Center The fact that they're doing the work Makes my heart sick It's one thing to get up close and Personal with wild birds in the safety Of a wildlife rehab facility but in Reality wild birds belong in Wild places So I'm off to hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge to see if I can find one Of my bucket list Birds Hey Steve hi Chris welcome to hakalo the Secluded Refuge sits on the Eastern Slope of the tallest volcano on Earth Mauna Kea which is famous for its

Breathtaking views of the stars from its Summit Observatory but among birders in The know this more than 32 Thousand Acre Mountain rainforest is the place to be If you want to spot a rare brightly Colored Hawaiian bird I've never seen Before the eev we're going to have some Good birding today this is one of the Best places to see a Hawaiian native Birds biologist Steve Kendall is a bird Sensei of sorts who's spent nearly a Decade getting to know the rare Feathered residents of this Refuge as Well as just about anybody so give me The 4-1-1 on hakalau first of all what Does hakalau mean so hakalau means place Of many perches the ancient Hawaiians Used to come up here and catch birds for Making the feather capes and such and so It was known as an area that had a lot Of native birds so this place is sort of Integral to the cultural history of Hawaii yes This Forest used to be a pristine Habitat for many of the Island's native Birds but by the 1980s some of the land Had been cleared for cattle A forest without trees isn't much of a Native bird habitat so bird lovers and Conservationists got to work we came in And planted these KOA trees grows very Fast so you get the canopy established And then we come in and planted all These understory species underneath

35 years that's it yep who did all this Planting volunteers In a delicate ecosystem like this Everything is intimately interconnected So when you bring back native forests Eventually you bring back native birds Like the Eevee [Music] EVS are nectivores so they're looking For nectar in the Ohio flowers [Music] The type of bird called a honey creeper And Hawaiian Honey creepers are Evolutionary Superstars In Hawaii more than 50 totally unique Honeycreeper species sprang from just One ancestor and they each evolved their Very own custom bills to make use of Every food source the EVS didn't used to Rely so much on oh here they were more Into the lobelia and if you look at Their flowers they have a big curved Flower shaped like an Eevee belt so that Curved Eevee bill is specifically Evolved to deal with this little Billiard but when lobelian started to Disappear from the forest so did the eev So Steven his volunteers began planting Lobeliad again And the Eevee came home we've seen them Back in the lobeliad flowers so even Though they hadn't seen them for decades And decades they remembered that's one That they got to come pollinate we

Birders have a term for the birds we've Never seen before in the wild a lifebird For me an Eevee would be a life bird I'm Really hoping I get to see one but I'm Also just a bit out of my element I'm Listening and I'm hearing things that I Don't recognize they're all new to me Yes so so far I've heard Ella pios I'm a Keys Well there's an Eevee so what does the EV sound like what am I well looking for It's it's kind of hard to describe some People say like a rusty hinge or Oh I hear one over here too yeah that That was an Eevee yeah yep I got one [Music] I'm on the big island of Hawaii and I've Just spotted one of their evolutionary Rock stars the brightly colored Eevee There it is so there's the the Beautiful huh yeah You got that bright orange you got the Sickle bill you got the black wings and The black tail striking That was an eev my first Thank you Steve very excited lifebird For me hooray Pure joy [Music] Outside The Refuge Hawaiian Honey Creepers like the Eevee are some of the Most endangered birds in the region But populations are a lot healthier here

Which not only makes hakalau a birding Hot spot but also a living science Experiment for biologists who want to Help Hawaiian Birds So we're heading down to a banding Station we have some collaborators that Have a permit to catch birds here Hello guys I understand you guys are Netting Birds here we are we are we got Some nuts down this way Alex Wong and Cara thou are fighting the Good fight to save Hawaii's native birds And the data they collect in the field Will ultimately teach us how bird Populations can bounce back here so it's Time to get some data I call it catching Some birds Nothing in this one Nothing in this one oh but there's Something in the next one and it could Even be a native So this is a Hawaii It's one of our native Hawaiian Honey Creepers You should really smell this bird yeah It's kind of a musty smell another Feature of our honey creepers is that They have the smell That's the old books Dusty Library I just sniffed a bird for the first time And uh I liked it [Laughter] So This is a hatchier bird so it was born

Sometime in the past 12 months well Hawaii namaki yeah welcome to the world In her first year So I'm going to start by doing a wing Measurements Basic measurements like weight and Wing Length help the team chart the young Birds Health Data that allowed them to Gauge the overall condition of this Forest's bird population more data means More knowledge means more ways to help The birds absolutely okay Alex it had One tracked with pin feathers okay we're Gonna give this one a snack before oh he Gets a snack what about me give it the Snack yeah okay I like that It's a quick timeout for the bird Equivalent of an energy drink and then This amakihi should be ready to get back To bird business Can we let this guy go back to his daily Activities would you like to release Them sure I can feel as little tiny Heart fluttering now that you got some Fuel Let you go [Music] That was glorious the bird is free and All is good in the world That bird was just lovely in its Tranquility and its uniqueness to this Place you begin to understand how the Habitat and the creatures that inhabit It are linked so tightly

Darwin was blown off course he went to The Galapagos when he should have gone To Hawaii Seeing the birds of the Big Island means I have to cover a lot of ground so it's Out of the forest and into the lava Flows I'm about to go so far off the beaten Path I might as well be on another Planet I'm in this virtually lunar Landscape on a cold wet day fit only for A goose which is actually fitting Because it's a big day for a pair of Nene here on the big island Yeah I'm in the right place for Nene I'm here to help release the Nae Nae the Geese I met earlier in the week but First biologist Raymond McGuire has Agreed to show me around the place The Hawaii Island Nene Sanctuary is Nearly 100 acres of soft rolling Grassland fruit trees and Native oh Hello berries a NeNe favorite in other Words it's a NeNe Paradise [Music] There they are This looks like heaven to me I'm only Imagining how it looks to a Nae Nae they Must love this that's the idea it's an Oasis here in the middle of the island So how many Nae Nae do you have here we Can have anywhere from 20 to 200 in a Given day Just looking at them Nene may not seem

That special But they mean a lot to Hawaiians They're even mentioned in the Hawaiian Creation chant as guardian spirits of The land But not long ago they were almost gone Back in the 1950s there is only 30 Nanny Left in the entire world and now we have More than 3 000 Statewide and how did That come back happen Well a lot of time and a lot of effort We've gone through captive breeding Programs we've gone through releasing Hundreds and thousands of Nene out into The wild it doesn't take a whole lot of Resources to make them go down to 30 but It takes a lot to bring them 70 years of Effort to bring it back Laughs [Music] It's moving day for a pair of NeNe's on The big island of Hawaii and I'm here to Celebrate with them at their new home Heidi You have a special guest S are ready to fly free Actually first we need to ban them so That we can identify them later and Hopefully they don't Go through Heidi again no repeat Customers [Music] Now since I had a hand in capturing this Bird a few days ago he may remember who

I am and not be pleased to see me again The car Okay You have a grip Yes all right so what you want to do is Get down Flat Pull the wings in flip it over Between your legs Make sure that he relaxes I have a Nae Nae wedged between my Thighs so right now this bird is calm And while this bird is calm we're gonna Get the bands on so these green bands Are unique to the Big Island These are our federal bands Because these are rehab Birds we want to Make sure that they're still comfortable With these bands so we're going to let Them walk around for a little bit There you go I feel like I messed up his Dew there The straight feather is sticking up Once the birds have adjusted to the Bands it's time to head up the hill and Set them free in the wild where they Really belong Oh two for one Okay [Music] Okay So we'll head up to the hill Look at this Julie Andrews never had it So good

And to think that this was a [Music] Was a how do you say goodbye in Hawaii Well we don't say goodbye we say We'll see you again Why don't you uh get this bird okay and We'll open it together all right Time to see how they do in their new Home and if their new neighbors will be Wary or welcoming Oh can you hear them Nanny around her Interested too [Music] Oh nice [Music] [Laughter] Foreign [Music] We've been looking down at the two we Released so focused on them here in the Pond and then you just sort of scan a Little bit to the right and sort of Waiting to welcome them you've got a Whole group of Nene there on the hill And that was made possible by Hawaiians Doing the heavy lifting to bring this Bird back from the brink and to just see Them here as part of this landscape Where they belong and doing so much Better than they were doing before [Music] Everything YouTube awesome

[Music] It felt like this is the way this place Is supposed to be and I almost don't Have the words to describe the feeling It felt like everything it really did Being in Hawaii more than any place else It has made me realize how birding gives You a sense of place birding is about Seeing the bird in its natural habitat On its terms Everything that is unique about Hawaii Is pretty much at risk To give up that uniqueness and just let It slide away We can't do it We as individuals have the ability to Shape the world around us and make it Better and make things better for the Other creatures we share the planet with We have that power all we have to do is Put our minds to it [Music] [Music] [Music]