WatchList Species Account for 'Alala or Hawaiian Crow (Corvus hawaiiensis)

Qualifies for the list as a Red List Species

Photo: Jack Jeffrey

Endemic to the island of Hawaii, the last two wild individuals of the Hawaiian Crow disappeared in 2002, and the species is now extinct in the wild. No fledglings had been produced in the wild since 1992. Some individuals remain in captivity and there are plans to reintroduce the bird into the wild, although previous attempts to do so were not successful. By 1998, 24 birds had been released into formerly occupied habitat, but by 1997-98, 18 of these birds had died, and the remaining individuals were recaptured to protect them and to preserve genetic diversity. Largely frugivorous and known for its remarkable vocal repetoire, it inhabited wet ohi’a-koa forest in addition to scrub and rangeland, but with the destruction and degradation of its habitat, it became confined in its latter years to high elevation forest. There was some altitudinal migration between the breeding and nonbreeding seasons.

The bird is subject to mosquito-borne diseases and also to predation by introduced rats and mongooses, but also by the Hawaiian Hawk, which, if translocated, will return to the site where they were captured. Even in recent years the bird was subject to shooting. Its last stronghold was the Kona Forest Unit of the Hakalea National Wildlife Refuge, and reintroduction plans include management of part of that area, in addition to control of predation and creative solutions to the threat to the bird from the Hawaiian Hawk.