Brookfield Zoo continues part in effort to restore population of extinct-in-the-wild sihek birds

Brookfield Zoo Chicago is one of several zoos taking part in an ongoing effort to restore the population of a bird that went extinct in the wild in Guam.

The sihek, also known as the Guam kingfisher, once flourished in the North Pacific U.S. territory of Guam. But the accidental introduction of the brown tree snake in Guam in the 1940s wiped out the sihek in the wild, along with several other species of native birds, bats, and lizards, Brookfield Zoo said.

An international collaboration project called the Sihek Recovery Program has been working to hatch and fledge a genetically diverse population of the birds to preserve the species and set up a healthy population again in the wild.

In 2024, the first nine sihek arrived on Palmyra Atoll, an uninhabited wildlife refuge about 1,000 miles from Honolulu. One of those nine birds was a male named Yayas from Brookfield Zoo, the zoo said.

Palmyra Atoll has no predators, and is protected as a Nature Conservancy Preserve and research station within a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Wildlife Refuge, the zoo said.

As many as eight more sihek will likely be headed for Palmyra Atoll later this year, the zoo said. A total of 10 sihek from Association of Zoos and Aquariums-accredited institutions to Disney's Animal Kingdom in Central Florida, where they will be quarantined in a secure behind-the-scenes facility for two months.

At least one of the 10 sihek is already at Disney's Animal Kingdom, and at least one is coming from Brookfield Zoo. Sihek are also coming from the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden; the National Aviary in Pittsburgh; the Oregon Zoo in Portland; the San Diego Zoo Safari Park; the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas; and the St. Louis Zoo.

"We've loved following Yayas' journey, one of the 'First Nine', on Palmyra Atoll and are hopeful that another bird from Brookfield Zoo Chicago will soon help write the next chapter in the Sihek's return to the wild," Cody Hickman, director of avian care and conservation at Brookfield Zoo Chicago, said in the release. "It's a powerful reminder that the birds our guests see here in Chicago are part of something much bigger—a global effort to restore a species that nearly vanished from nature in our lifetime."

The last wild sihek sighting was in 1988, and there are currently 150 alive at all.