Maui Nö Ka 'Oi! Maui has the rare birds CLICK for larger ImageWhat began as a handful of wetland ponds with dozens of birds overlooking Pearl Harbor has turned into a refuge teeming with hundreds.
The number of native birds, including endangered Hawaiian stilts called ae o, in the ponds at Waiawa and Honouliuli at the Pearl Harbor National Wildlife Refuge has been rising since the early 1990s, when a conservation recovery plan was developed, said David Ellis, refuge project leader.
Federal wildlife officials built fences to help keep out predators and began controlling invasive plants and managing water in the ponds.
“There’s been a very noticeable increase,” Ellis said. “There used to be only a few wetland birds that used these ponds ; now we commonly see hundreds, an important step for endangered species.”
