A tiny bird with cinnamon-colored feathers is about to live free in the wild again — and Chicago is at the heart of its comeback story.
Brookfield Zoo Chicago announced that up to eight Sihek — also known as Guam kingfishers — could be released on Palmyra Atoll later this year, a milestone that would nearly double the species’ wild population. It would be only the second time in 40 years that new Sihek live in the wild.
The colorful species once thrived on the Pacific island of Guam, but the accidental arrival of the brown tree snake in the 1940s devastated its native wildlife. The last Sihek sighting in the wild was in 1988, and the species is now listed as Extinct in the Wild. Fewer than 150 remain on the planet, all under human care.
The international Sihek Recovery Program is now preparing its next big step. Ten birds from accredited zoos — including Brookfield Zoo Chicago, the Cincinnati Zoo, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park — will head to a biosecure quarantine facility at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. After about two months, the program will choose which birds make the 5,400-mile journey to Palmyra. Best of all, six of the ten are females, a big boost since males outnumber females two to one in the global population.
They will join the “First Nine” Sihek that arrived on Palmyra in 2024, including Yayas, a male from Brookfield Zoo Chicago. The atoll is predator-free and fully protected as a nature preserve — a safe home for the birds to establish breeding pairs. Scientists are even hoping for the first wild-born Sihek chicks since the 1980s.
“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,” said Cody Hickman, the zoo’s director of avian care and conservation.
Photo: Brookfield Zoo Chicago
