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The Ulūlu's Comeback
An endangered Hawaiian songbird shows promising signs of recovery
© USFWS
There are promising signs that a native Hawaiian bird called the ulūlu is on the way to recovery. Also known as the Millerbird, this small gray songbird nearly disappeared when invasive species including rabbits destroyed most of their habitats on the island of Laysan in the early 1900s. In the 2010s, biologists brought 50 individuals from the Nihoa population and reintroduced them to Laysan. From these humble beginnings, the population grew steadily, now sustaining itself at several hundred individuals.
BirdNote®
The Ulūlu's Comeback
Written by Conor Gearin
This is BirdNote.
[Waves breaking on the Hawaiian islands]
There are promising signs that a native Hawaiian bird called the ulūlu is on the way to recovery. Also known as the Millerbird, this small gray songbird nearly disappeared when invasive species including rabbits destroyed most of their habitats on the island of Laysan in the early 1900s. Only a few hundred birds remained on a second island, Nihoa.
[Ulūlu (Millerbird) calls]
Although conservationists removed the invasive species in the 1920s, it was many decades before they tried to bring ulūlu back to Laysan. In the 2010s, biologists brought 50 individuals from the Nihoa population and reintroduced them to Laysan. From these humble beginnings, the population grew steadily, now sustaining itself at several hundred individuals.
[Ulūlu (Millerbird) calls]
These reintroduced birds even got a special name in Hawaiian: ulūlu niau. The second word niau means “moving smoothly, swiftly, silently, and peacefully,” in remembrance of their historic journey from Nihoa to Laysan.
[Ulūlu (Millerbird) calls]
The ulūlu remains dependent on these two small islands and is still considered endangered by the U.S. and the State of Hawaii. But in late 2023, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature reclassified the species from critically endangered to just endangered, a step that recognizes the ulūlu’s progress away from the brink of extinction.
For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.
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Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. ML88670821 Recorded by Eric VanderWerf.
Field recording by Gordon Hempton. Used with permission.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2024 BirdNote July 2024
Narrator: Michael Stein
ID# ululu-01-2024-08-21 ululu-01
References:
https://www.papahanaumokuakea.gov/news/millerbird_031612.html
https://www.papahanaumokuakea.gov/news/millerbird_hawaiian_names.html
Michael Stein
Narrator