Conservationist draws research inspiration from rare Hawaiian bird

ALBEMARLE COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- Ashley Dayer, a Virginia Tech professor and conservationist, began searching for one of the world's rarest birds in Maui nearly 25 years ago.

At the time of her search in 2002, the po'ouli, a small Hawaiian black-faced honeycreeper, had only three known individuals of the species remaining, whose home ranges did not overlap with one another.

Dayer and her team were working on the Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project, which involved being dropped off by helicopters into the Hawaiian rainforest for weeks at a time with the goal of capturing a po'ouli and relocating it in hopes it would pair with another.

Dayer and her team successfully captured one bird, placed a radio tag on its back, and transported it to the home range of another. The team stayed overnight and fed the bird its typical food -- a type of snail.

When its cage was opened the next morning, however, Dayer said the bird flew back to its original home range rather than staying and finding the other po'ouli.

The team tracked the bird's path for 10 days through the radio tag, during which they learned about its behavior. Dayer said the bird spent much of its time with birds of another species.

Later on, following the unsuccessful translocation and Dayer's departure from the team, they planned to take two birds into captivity for breeding. Only one bird was captured, but, unfortunately, it died in captivity.

"At this point, they're believed to be extinct, because that was almost 20 years ago, now," Dayer said. "It was a pretty horrible situation watching a species go extinct in front of my own eyes, and actually, a really common situation in Hawaii, which is considered one of the endangered species [capitals] of the world."

The last known bird later became a specimen on display at a museum. Dayer explained that the effort to save the po'ouli and its eventual extinction had a tremendous impact on her career.

"As you can imagine, watching a bird go extinct, especially early in your career, is a really formative experience for a conservation scientist," Dayer said. "I think the thing that stuck out the most in my mind from that experience was that while we felt like we were in a really dire situation, we were so surprised that the general public wasn't aware of what was going on in Maui."

Dayer said most of both residents and visitors were not aware of the bird and its status, and from that experience, she realized the role that a community's awareness and its vested interest in a species can play in conservation.

While there, she said she spent time working on an education program, during which she met with youth, and tabled at outreach events and festivals to spread public awareness around the issue.

"In reality, the issue wasn't just that there wasn't public awareness in Hawaii, it's that there wasn't awareness in the rest of the U.S. that Hawaiian species were struggling so much," Dayer said. "So when allocations were made, of funding, for conservation priorities, the amount of money that went to Hawaii was inadequate, given the severity of the crisis."

Alongside that realization came her decision to change her career, as Dayer shifted from being a field biologist to a social scientist, with a focus on how human behavior and thought shape the results of conservation efforts.

"We spend a lot of time in conservation trying to understand and study the animals that we love, but what we need to keep in mind is that people's behavior actually is the biggest determinant of whether or not we're going to have conservation success," Dayer said.

Dayer said her work in social science involves studying people's behavior regarding bird issues. She works closely with communities and conservation organizations to find better ways to work with the public on conservation challenges.

As it's now September, Dayer said it is currently a time of bird migration, during which the average person can take steps to mitigate harmful human impacts and support birds.

Many of these migrating birds, including songbirds and shorebirds with which she works, migrate at night. During that time, Dayer said the birds follow cues, including starlight and moonlight, and they can become distracted by lights from buildings at night, causing window strikes.

According to a study by researchers at American Bird Conservancy published in August of 2024, building collisions are killing significantly more birds than was previously estimated -- more than one billion each year in the U.S. alone.

"It's a really important time of year for people to turn off their lights, whether it be the lights on [their] porch, or, particularly important in an office building," Dayer said.

In addition to turning off your lights at night, Dayer said you can take the following steps to support bird populations:

• Keep your cat indoors or use a "catio" for exercise and enrichment to keep birds safe
• Choose bird-friendly products when possible, like bird-friendly coffee
• Plant native species, which are hosts for many insects that birds feed to their young during breeding season

With shorebirds, specifically, Dayer said some birds like the piping plover and American oystercatcher that breed in and migrate through Virginia face the tremendous challenge of habitat loss due to coastal development and changes in coastal management.

Dayer said it's especially important that humans mitigate their impact during migration season due to the great distances these birds travel, during which they expend a large amount of energy.

To support shorebirds, pet owners can avoid walking their dogs along shorelines. While walking along the shoreline on your own, Dayer said you can take a wide path around shorebirds to avoid disturbing them.

For those who want to get involved in birding and the conservation of bird species, Dayer said you can check out your local birding club, your local chapter of the National Audubon Society, or The Nature Conservancy, and attend a bird walk or other event.

"It's a way for people to get to learn more about these really cool species that we have in our own location," Dayer said.

Even without a group, however, Dayer noted that you can help support birds by being a participatory scientist. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Merlin Bird ID app allows birders to identify birds by either audio or photos, and its eBird app allows users to log their sightings.