Songs Not Silence campaign, Kaua'i Forest Bird Recovery Project

[Melanie Colón]

We have launched a new campaign to support primarily our mosquito research and control work, and secondarily ongoing rat control. We have entitled it "Songs, NotSilence", aka "Restore the Symphony in the Forest" in honor of the recent Symphony of Hawaiian Birds and an article on research song impoverishment in our bird community that came out in the local newspaper last week: https://wsoe.org/honeycreepers-numbers-dwindling-and-so-are-their-songs/?fbclid=IwAR2kOSlXp8ZOo7Uci3DPPCBLnUGZTKCLEyMN3lLsu_tU-sVUQXStwty9eS8

Please share the campaign far and wide. It can be found here:

https://www.gofundme.com/Songs-Not-Silence

Mahalo!

Cali

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Lisa "Cali" Crampton
Project Leader
Kauai Forest Bird Recovery Project
PO Box 27 (USPS mail) or 3751 Hanapepe Rd (courier packages)
Hanapepe HI 96716
808.335.5078

 

PROJECT ʻAKEKEʻE
COST $75,000 PER ANNUM
ʻAkekeʻe are Critically Endangered (only 1000 birds remain) and exist only on Kauaʻi. Thier biggest threat appears to be avian malaria spread by mosquitos. This project funds expanded mosquito research and control, which represents the best hope of recovery for all of Kauaʻi’s honeycreepers.

PROJECT PUAIOHI
COST $65,000 PER ANNUM
Puaiohi are also Critically Endangered and exist only on Kauaʻi. They number 500 individuals in the wild; population growth appears to be limited by invasive rats, which prey on females as they incubate their nests.  Since 2015 we have deployed 425 self-resetting rat traps in the heart of Puaiohi’s range to protect their nests. These amazing traps kill up to 22 rats before needing maintenance. This project funds extensive predator control in remote regions of the Alakaʻi.

Help combat these threats by investing in much-needed research and management. Here is how you can help:

$1000
Support an intern for a month
Fighting disease is labor-intensive! Interns help us survey for and control mosquitos and catch birds to outfit them with transmitters, while learning valuable professional skills.

$500
Pay for a helicopter flight
Help our dedicated staff and equipment get to remote field locations to carry out research and control invasive mosquitoes and rats.

$250
Buy a radiotransmitter
Tiny transmitters attached temporarily to birds allow us to study their movement patterns and determine where they come into contact with mosquitoes.

$100
Buy a mistnet
We use mistnets to catch birds so that we can band them to study population dynamics, attach transmitters, and take samples for disease screening.

$40
Fill a cannister with CO2
CO2 lures mosquitoes into traps. This type of field work helps us better understand mosquito distribution for future control effort.

$10
Buy a bag of alfalfa
When a female mosquito has eaten her fill, she tries to find nice “stinky” water to lay her eggs in. We use alfalfa to make stinky water for traps to catch these female.

Learn more here: 
Kaua'i Forest Bird Recovery Project 
Introduction to Mosquito Research on Kaua'i 
Thank you for caring about Kaua'is native forest birds!