Project Overview
The Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project (MFBRP) was founded in 1997 by the State of Hawaii Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW) and the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to develop and implement techniques to recover Maui's endangered birds and to restore their habitat. The Kiwikiu (Maui Parrotbill; Pseudonestor xanthophrys), a honeycreeper with only about 500 individuals left, is one of the most endangered native birds remaining in Hawaii. Though the Kiwikiu was once found across all of East Maui, its range is currently limited to 19 square miles on the high elevation northeast slopes of East Maui's Haleakala Mountain.

Project Goals
The number one objective for the Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project is to establish a second population of Kiwikiu to prevent their extinction with impending climate change. All of our other objectives fall under this overall goal. We are working on how we can manipulate these birds in the wild to use supplemental food sources so that they may be able to sustain a supported wild population in new areas while the forest is recovering. We are investigating species demographics at the edge of the species range to look at how they are using less pristine forest areas and what factors may be limiting their survival and productivity there. Lastly, we are implementing an experimental restoration project on the dry side of Haleakala volcano, where the these birds will be released in the future, in order to assess what techniques can be extrapolated out to reforest the rest of the mountain as quickly and efficiently as possible.