Archive for the ‘Bird Conservation in Siapan’ Category

May
28

Bird Conservation in Saipan: It is gonna be a long, long day…

Posted by in Bird Conservation in Siapan,Birds,Conservation,Uncategorized

The 24 remaining birds are being shipped stateside to AZA zoos.  If I thought my flight was going to be long – it does not compare to the journey that the birds will be going through.

We put the birds into their transport crates the night before they depart. We do this for a couple of reasons : the birds will need to be at the airport at 4:45 AM on Monday May 2 and also we want them to have some quiet time to get used to the crates for transport.

The interior of the transport crates, ready for birds.

Crating the birds for the trip to their new home.

When shipping birds we typically send them to their new home as fast as possible.  However, because the golden White-eyes and the Roufus Fantails are so small we need to make sure they have adequate rest prior to each leg of their journey.  So this is what the next 72 + hours will be like for our birds.

Airports are for the birds.

The birds go to Guam on Monday morning, in Guam they will stay for about 20 hours and be taken care of by some bird care experts that are currently on the island from Disney’s Animal Kingdom.  Then they fly on May 3 to Honolulu and 8 of the birds will stay at the Honolulu Zoo.  The other 16 will stay in Honolulu over night where staff from the Honolulu Zoo will feed and care for them.  Finally, mid-day on May 4th, I catch up with the birds when I land in Honolulu (half-way home) and they will fly with me onto Houston.  In Houston, I will go over to the Continental Airlines Pet Safe area where they will let me feed and care for all the birds again.  Later on the 4th, the birds will be shipped to their new US zoos: the Memphis Zoo, the Riverbanks Zoo, the North Carolina Zoo and the St. Louis Zoo.

And they make this journey without the benefit of an in-flight movie or drink service.  Compared to their journey, we have it easy.

Once the birds are gone, we only have to clean-up and pack everything to finish.  We scrub all 60 of the holding cages, inventory and pack our supplies, and refresh any supplies that we need for next year.

The final holding cage cleaning for the year.

Drying the holding cages.

The inventory list

All the supplies packed up.

Ready to do it all again next year!

After we complete those tasks – we are hoping to have a few hours of snorkeling. 

Conservation never looked so good.

 

To read the rest of this blog series about the long journey to and in Saipan, click HERE

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
May
23

Bird Conservation in Saipan: Moving on (to a little island in the sea)

Posted by in Bird Conservation in Siapan,Birds,Endangered

One of the primary goals of this field work is to translocate some of the critically endangered Golden White-eyes to an uninhabited, predator-free island in the CNMI chain.  In the past phases of the MAC project translocations have been done with Bridled White-eyes as a trial to see how they would fair on a new island home.  The Bridled White-eye translocation was successful – the birds not only survived but nested and raised chicks on their new home.

This year we are translocating 24 Golden White-eyes from Saipan to Sarigan.  Sarigan is about 2 hours from Saipan via Helicopter.

The tiny uninhabited island of Sarigan.

The translocation is scheduled for Thursday – so for the 2 days before I poured over all the weight and size data for the White-eyes and have to choose 24 birds out of the 40 that we have to send for release.  While looking at the data, I try to choose birds that may not adapt well to captivity (because we are bringing 12 birds back to the US for captive breeding).  After several hours of looking at weights, wing, and tarsus measurements, I have picked out the 24 birds that will call Sarigan home – and as luck would have it, they turn out to be 12 males and 12 females.

Here's a little known fact about bird nerds--we LOVE spreadsheets!

The night before the release we put color bands on the birds – each bird will have a unique color band combination so that field researchers can identify them.  Once the birds are banded, they go into their special transport crates.

Removing a bird from its holding cage.

Banding the bird for release and future identification.

Good luck kisses are a vital part of the relocation program.

Early the next morning, project leader Herb Roberts, Curator of Birds at the Memphis Zoo, loads them up into the helicopter to take to their new island home.

At least the people in the helicopter had a very impressive view on the way to the white-eye’s new home.

After they landed on Sarigan, the crates are taken into the forest to let the white-eyes enjoy their new island paradise (although some of the white-eyes are a little more cautious than the otehrs).

Next spring, field researchers from DFW will come to Sarigan and look for unbanded Golden White-eyes.  Any birds without a leg band will be off-spring from the 24 that we moved.  We are very hopeful that they will breed and thus grow an ‘insurance’ population of this beautiful species that is protected from the dangers on their home island of Saipan. 

The DFW field researchers will keep look-out for a Golden White-eye nest like this one

After the release on Sarigan, we still had extra birds remaining in our care.  We originally caught 18 Rufous Fan-tails and 42 Golden White-eyes.  Since we are only taking 12 Fantails and 12 White-eyes back to the United States; we needed to choose the birds to return to their original trapping location.  After looking carefully at the food consumption of the birds we trapped; we chose 6 Fantails and 6 White-eyes to re-release.  Mid-day on the day after the translocation, we took these birds back out to their original trap location.  Most of the fantails flew out of the crate with hast… however, the White-eyes, always curious, usually eyed their surroundings prior to flying out of their crate.

A Golden White-eye, cautiously examining its surroundings before flying free.

A Rufous Fantail takes flight back at its original home.

 

While we were back at our netting sites, we were able to see check-up on the Bridled White-eye nest that was near trap 1… and we were very pleased to see that one chick had hatched and the 2nd egg was in the hatching process.  It looks like it will be another successful spring for the birds on Saipan.

A Bridled White-eye chick, and a second on the way!

Make sure you haven’t missed out! Read the rest of the series HERE!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
May
12

Bird Conservation in Saipan: I Traveled How Far to Feed Birds at 5 AM?

Posted by in Bird Conservation in Siapan,Birds,Conservation

I traveled halfway around the world so that I can do some of the same things I do in Houston.  One of my primary responsibilities in Saipan has been the set-up and care of the Bird Room.  This room is home-sweet-home for all the birds that we collected. 

My morning starts at 5 AM each day.  I head into the bird room to start the preparations for the day.  The birds need to be fed, weighed and their holding cages need to be cleaned and of course all the dishes need to be washed.  

The Golden White-eyes and the Rufous Fantails get similar but not identical diets.  The White-eyes are mainly frugivores but eat insects as well.  The Fantails are mainly insectivores. To feed both of these species we had to bring a lot of food from the US to make sure we were able to provide them with their nutritional needs.

Making the morning diets...the EARLY morning diets!

First I make the Fantail food dishes.  Each Fantail receives some insectivore pellets and powder as well as a cup with mealworms and small crickets.  The fantails also receive 1 medicated mealworm at first light so that we can treat them for any possible parasites or disease issues that they might have brought with them.  

Fantail diets

Yum! Insects for the Fantails

Second, I make the White-eye diets.  The White-eyes are fed several varieties of pellets; an insectivore pellet and a fruit pellet (the fruit pellet looks and smells like Fruity Pebbles cereal, but tastes nothing like it unfortunately.)  Being primarily fruit eaters we provide them with their favorite food item – fresh papaya.  The White-eye can easily eat several chunks of papaya a day that are well over twice their size. They also receive a small amount of mealworms on their food tray.  If the White-eyes are not gaining enough weight, they also receive a special nectar made for birds (similar to hummingbird nectar).

White-eye Diets

We try to feed and clean the birds at the same time so that we do not have to disturb them again for several hours.  The holding cages are made with a tray that slides out so that we can add fresh food, water and insects all while cleaning the tray.

The sliding holding cage tray

After the birds have eaten for about an hour, we weigh them.  The holding cages were designed so that we could weigh the birds without having to catch them.  There is a perch in the holding cage that is attached to a platform.  We placed the scale under the platform and when the bird lands on the perch, we can tell what its weight is that morning.  We chart all the weights each day for the birds and note is there are any issues with weight loss or gain. 

Perch-scale on top of the holding cage

Once we are done with all of the feeding and cleaning, we have piles of dishes to keep clean as well as clean up the holding room and kitchen.

Unfortunately, doing the dishes in Saipan is no more fun than doing the dishes in Houston.

After dishes are done, we start providing the Rufous Fantails with their favorite food item: flies.  Yes, that is right, flies.  Fantails are a type of Fly-catcher, which as you might guess gets that name because they like to eat flies.  We were able to bring in fly larva from a lab in Hawaii (the lab makes sure the flies are clean and parasite free).  We started hatching all the flies as we started catching birds.

 The biggest problem was how do we feed the flies to the Fantails?  We were able to modify some petri dishes so that we could load them up with flies and put them into the holding cages – the flies would then fly out of the dish and be hunted and eaten by the fantails.  While it was very rewarding to watch the fantails with this treat – getting the dishes ready was time consuming and frustrating – somehow flies never do what you want them to do.  

The world's strangest staring contest

Once we finished the AM fly feeding, we leave the bird room so that they can eat without distraction and then in the mid-afternoon we fed them all again.   After the evening dishes were complete, the lights are turned out at sunset and we got ready to start everything at 5 AM the next day.

A lot of work goes on in this room!

 

Want to read more about Bird Conservation in Saipan?

Click to read parts one, two, three, four and five!

Tags: , , , , ,
May
07

Bird Conservation in Saipan: Turn Your Head and Cough (Giving the Birds a Physical Exam in the Field)

Posted by in Behind the Scenes,Bird Conservation in Siapan,Birds,Conservation,Endangered,Series

Each bird that is brought into holding is “processed” – this means we do a quick health assessment of the bird as well as band it and weigh it.  We take the time when we first arrive back at the bird room to give each bird a quick physical exam (by the vet that accompanies us on this trip).  The vet looks at the overall condition of the bird, how much body fat that it has and takes many measurements including: tail length, wing cord length, tarsus length, and bill length.  

Measuring the length of the beak

Taking leg length measurements

Tail length measurement

And finally, a wing length measurement

The vet also takes a small blood sample (by clipping the bird’s toenail) to check for any problems or disease issues and to provide a small blood sample for DNA determination of the bird’s sex. 

This information combined with the incoming weight of the birds gives us a quick snap shot into the overall health of the birds.  After the health check is complete, we assign a leg band number to the bird and place it in its new holding cage with a label indicating the bird’s band number.

Home sweet home, for only a few weeks!

 

But wait! There’s more! Read the rest of the series HERE!

Tags: , , , , , ,
May
05

Bird Conservation in Saipan:Even NASA would be jealous of our acronyms

Posted by in Bird Conservation in Siapan,Birds,Conservation,Endangered

Every industry has its own special lingo…. here is how I could tell you about my day in ‘our’ lingo…

 While in CNMI, the MAC team, in conjunction with DFW and AZA TAGs, works to provide different species for captive breeding as well as translocation.  On this trip our targets are GOWE and RUFA. 

"GOWE"

 
 
 
 

"RUFA"

 

We opened the nets at 6:00 AM ChST.  Throughout the day, every 15 minutes all the nets have to be checked and cleared of any non-target species.  Each time we walked out into the woods our excitement grew at the thought of catching our targeted species.  On the walks, we were also able to see active BRWE and RUFA nests.

BRWE Nest

RUFA nest

We would take turns going on the different net routes: nets 9, & 1-4, nets 10 and 11, or nets 5-8.  On the 3rd day of netting we added nets 12, 14, 15, & 16 to the mix to increase our trapping numbers.  And if you counted you may have noticed that we skipped net 13 – we did this intentionally, not as a superstition (as one might suspect), but net 13 is for “nature’s call” as we were out in the forest with no facilities other than trees near-by.

During the several days we were mist-netting, we also caught (and released) BRWE, MIST, COLK, WTGD, and MIHO.

BRWE

MIST

COLK

MIHO

For each of the target species that we caught a very specific protocol was followed.  Each person that was checking the nets had a special bag to hold and transport the bird back to base camp.  At camp, we put the birds into specialized transport boxes (with food and water) and labeled each bird with the net number and the time of trapping.  We used a GPS to mark all the netting sites, so we would be able to later include the exact trapping location in our data set. Once the birds were settled into the transport crates, we would transfer them back to the bird room for processing. 

COLK caught in a mist net

 
 
 

Trapped birds waiting in their individual bags to go in the crates.

 

Placing birds in the transport crates.

A transport crate ready to go and full of birds!

There is not a list of 100’s of bird species that inhabit this area; in fact the bird list numbers around 104 – 110 species.  One of the unique attributes of the CNMI is that each island has several endemic species (species that only occur on that island or those islands near-by).  Many of the birds that call CNMI home are listed on the IUCN as NT, VU, EN or CR (not to mention on near-by Guam the Micronesian Kingfisher is EW).   There are only a few forest bird species on the Island that we did not catch, namely MAFD and NIRW and one endemic species we did not see at all but heard… the MIME.  While driving to and from our netting sites, we did see several birds that are common to this are including WHTE, BRNO, and REHE.  While the possible list of species is not as long and diverse as the bird list for the Houston area, each sighting was a unique opportunity to see many bird species that not common, even in their native habitat.

Codes:

CNMI    Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
DFW      Department of Fish and Wildlife (for CNMI)

ChST      Chamorro Standard Time
MAC      Mariana Avifauna Conservation
AZA        Association of Zoos and Aquariums
TAG       Taxon Advisory Group
IUCN     International Union for Conservation of Nature
                EW         Extinct in the Wild
                CR           Critically Endangered
                EN          Endangered
                VU          Vulnerable
                NT          Near Threatened

AOU Banding Codes for Birds (with IUCN Red List Status)

GOWE   Golden White-eye (CR)
RUFA     Rufous Fantail
BRWE    Bridled White-eye (EN)
WTGD   White-throated Ground Dove (NT)
COLK     Collared Kingfisher
MIST      Micronesian Starling
MIHO    Micronesian Honeyeater
MAFD   Mariana Fruit Dove (EN)
NIRW    Nightingale Reed Warbler (CR)
MIME    Micronesian Megapode (EN)
WHTE    White Tern
BRNO    Brown Noddy
REHE      Pacific Reed Heron

Tiny RUFA chicks in the nest, four days after we first spotted the nest, shown previously.

 Want more information? Read the rest of the series by clicking HERE!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
May
03

Bird Conservation in Saipan: I get to use a Machete!!!

Posted by in Bird Conservation in Siapan,Birds,Conservation,Endangered

But not while holding birds….

Beware of curators brandishing sharp objects!

Early in the day, we head to the end of the island to set-up the trapping sites.  Saipan is not large… in fact the entire island is about 2 miles wide and 16 miles long.  We are going to set-up nets in an area that is predominately uninhabited; the entire area is peppered with very small farm areas and memorials to the Japanese victims of world War II.

Bonsai Cliff WWII Memorial

Driving distance from our hotel to the netting site is about 20 minutes or so by road and then we have to go off-road to get into the bush to set-up the nets. 

 
 
 

This is a road; you just have to believe!

 

We all unload out of the car with machetes and pruning saws in hand –ready to make the road passable.  This is when I find out about the one thing that I really don’t believe was adequately discussed with me prior to coming on this trip… boonie bees!

Boonie bees are a type of paper wasp that is highly aggressive.  So as we are cutting back the over grown bush – 1-2 people have to stand ready with wasp spray.  The wasps are small and they build their hives on the hidden underside of leaves.  If you disturb the leaves – out come the wasps and they are not happy…. Needless to say once this was explained – I made sure I had the wasp spray with me at all times. 

Boonie bees--highly aggressive, but notoriously camera shy.

We worked hard for the whole day.  Much of the forest of Saipan is introduced species: a lot of vines and trees that grew after the native fauna was destroyed in World War II.  

The field leading into the forest.

We  spent the day chopping back brush, creating trails, and setting nets.  At one point I was half-way up a small tree and using a machete to clear the brush above me.  We got all the areas cleared for 8 nets and my arms are sore enough to testify that it was not an easy day.  

Setting up the nets.

Fun times in the forests of Saipan!

Can't see the net? Neither can the birds!

At the end of the day – while we were setting up the last net, we got our first catch: a Rufous Fantail (Rhipidura rufifrons)!

Rufous Fantail

 

To read more about bird conservation on Saipan, click here!

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Apr
25

Bird Conservation in Saipan: Beware – Don’t Blog While Jet-lagged…

Posted by in Bird Conservation in Siapan,Birds,Conservation

…or try to assemble bird holding cages for that matter.

We left on Saturday morning at around 9:30 AM and got into Saipan 9 PM on Sunday – I missed a whole day somewhere.  The total flight time was a little over 17 hours; but if you include our lay-overs we traveled for a little over 24 hours.  That explains where my day went to except for a few hours… but I am pretty sure I left those hours somewhere west of Hawaii.

Most of the participants in this field work are from other AZA zoos; many of us took the same flight from Houston to Saipan.  Currently there are people from over 10 zoos across the US;  including Memphis Zoo, Sedgwick County Zoo, St. Louis Zoo, North Carolina Zoo, Honolulu Zoo, Toledo Zoo, Louisville Zoo, and of course the Houston Zoo.  The flight took us from Houston to Honolulu  to Guam to Saipan.

This is all I saw of Hawaii, but it's a great view for an airport terminal!

Today we spent the bulk of the day getting ready for the birds.  The Summer Holiday Hotel is where we are staying; they have generously allowed us use of one of their rooms for the bird holding area.  It is great.  Generally the birds are kept in a small outdoor holding area at the Department of Fish and Wildlife. This time around the bird holding room is more of a ‘wing’ (yes, pun intended).  We have a room for the birds, a kitchen area, a nook for the vet staff, and a lot of shelf space for storage.  And best of all we have air conditioning.

The old holding room

The new and improved bird room, courtesy of the Summer Holiday Hotel.

We made a morning stop of the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Here the permits were stamped and we gathered all the supplies that are stored in this area for the year.  We ended up filling the backs of both the vehicles (twice) and a Fish and Wildlife truck bed with supplies.

Supplies for collecting and housing birds in Saipan.

Once we got back, it was time to set up the bird room.  Everyone worked together to set up the crates (it apparently takes 3 bird curators and 1 vet to figure out how to assemble the first crate) and the holding racks as well as prep the kitchen.  Then we took a quick shopping trip to get some final supplies.

How many bird experts does it take to assemble 60 crates? We plead the fifth!

Now that this is all set-up – we just have to start to scout the land for the netting.

Just add birds!

 

Want to know more?  Read the entire series, here!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Apr
20

Chasing the Sun: Bird Conservation on Saipan

Posted by in Bird Conservation in Siapan,Birds,Conservation

If you are flying west all day – are you chasing the sun or following it…

We are headed to the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands; namely Saipan.

You might be asking the same thing my family and friends did right after I told them where I was headed – you are going where…. You are doing what???

I am on my way to do some field work for the Houston Zoo and the AZA community.

The Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands is a chain of about 14 islands in the Pacific around 3000 miles west of Hawaii.  It is probably considered nearest to the Philippine Islands , if you could call it near.  It is over 1400 miles to the Phillipines; think the distance from New York to Houston.

For over 5 years, there has been a group of AZA bird professionals doing some important work in this part of the world – currently all of the bird species on the Marianas islands that have human habitation are under threat from the Brown Tree Snake (Boiga irregularis).  All of the birds on these islands evolved in a way that left them unprepared to deal with a threat from this predator.

As a way to hopefully keep some of these wonderful species from extinction, AZA has been working on the Marianas Avi-fauna Conservation Project.  By both capturing some of these birds for a ‘safety’ population in US zoos and working with translocation of various species to uninhabited, predator -free islands, we are working to protect these birds.

This is where I am and this is what I am doing.

 

Read the whole series here!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,