Kauaʻi keiki learn about the endangered seabird “A’o”; Watch four young birds released into the ocean: Kauai Now

For more than a decade, learning about the endangered seabird “A’o,” also known as the Newell’s shearwater, has been a ritual for fourth-graders at Island School on Kauaʻi.

Students are introduced to the remarkable life and behavior of ‘A’o, first in the classroom and then in Lydgate Park.

Jaqueline Nelson, senior program manager at Save our Shearwaters, conducted final health checks on four young shearwaters before local elected officials released them Tuesday to begin a two-year journey to sea.

“It’s a unique species to work with,” Nelson said. “It’s something special that we get to work with these creatures that can live on the open sea for years and don’t touch land unless necessary.”

Each fall, hundreds of these seabirds’ first contact with land is the reason they come into the care of Save Our Shearwaters. They literally fall to the ground after being attracted to artificial light.

“Young birds flying to sea for the first time are often attracted to the nighttime artificial lighting of playing fields, hotels, resorts and streets,” said the nonprofit American Bird Conservancy. “They become disoriented and circle around the lights until they become exhausted and fall to the ground, where they can be injured or killed by cars, cats or dogs.”

All of Hawaii’s main islands have annual bird trapping programs where people are encouraged to bring fallen birds for examination and any necessary treatment.

“You get a complete, head-to-toe exam,” Nelson said. “If something happens, we can try to treat it. If it’s a bird lying normally on the ground, the solution is often quick.”

While Save our Shearwaters staff regularly release birds, the Newell’s shearwater releases witnessed by the fourth graders are special because students in their classrooms also learn about the threats and importance of the birds from experts from the Kaua’i Endangered Seabird Recovery Project have learned.

On Tuesday, recovery project coordinator Dilek Sahin tested the students’ newfound knowledge, including the following: “When they feed their babies, they go to the sea to get food for one to two weeks.”

Nelson congratulated the keiki on their answers: “You got all of these questions right, which makes me very proud. The four birds I have today were found by the public. So you could have found her.”

The hope is that students will become active conservationists throughout their lives, teaching the adults in their lives the procedures for rescuing a fallen seabird and transporting it to a rehabilitation center.

“These endangered seabirds mostly live out of sight in the mountains,” said Sahin. “They are active at night. It is important to inform people that they are facing threats. If we have a connection, it will be more possible to protect it and facilitate the conservation of this species. We need the public’s and new generations’ help to find and save these birds.”