Oregon Zoo welcomes rare species of kingfisher

The Oregon Zoo announced Thursday that they have welcomed a trio of critically endangered kingfishers to their aviary.

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- The Oregon Zoo announced Thursday that they have welcomed a trio of critically endangered kingfishers to their aviary.

The birds, an ultra-rare species of kingfisher called a sihek (SEE-heck), were once native to the island of Guam, but have been extinct in the wild since the 1988 after being wiped out by an invasive brown tree snake.

According to the zoo, there are only 110 left in the world and they are all in captivity at various U.S. zoos and the Guam Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources.

Travis Koons, who oversees the zoo's birds, said bringing the three male birds to the Vollum Aviary from the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute and having them live in the same habitat is great news for the population's recovery efforts.

“We’re trying out a new way to care for them, and it’s going really well so far,” he said. “If male siheks can live together, that opens up a lot more options for zoos that can help care for these critically endangered birds," he said.

While the siheks might be hard to spot in the aviary at first, Koons added it’s worth the wait just to get a glimpse.

“You can often find these birds sitting in the large tree above the entrance as you walk into the aviary,” he said. “It’s a unique opportunity to see them because there are so few anywhere in the world.”

Although these specific birds will not be released into the wild, the zoo says conservationists eventually plan to reintroduce other siheks to a different location where brown tree snakes are not a threat, in order to increase the global population.