This is a bird note.

There are promising signs that a native Hawaiian birds called the Ulllu is on the way to recovery.

Also known as the Miller Bird, this small Grace songbird nearly disappeared

when invasive species, including rabbits,

destroyed most of their habitats on the island of Lesin

in the early 1900s.

Only a few hundred birds remained on a second island, Nihoa.

Although conservationists removed the invasive species in the 1920s,

it was many decades before they tried to bring Ullulu back to Lesan.

In the 2010s, biologists brought 50 individuals from the Nihoa population and reintroduced them to Lesen.

From these humble beginnings, the population grew steadily,

now sustaining itself at several hundred individuals.

These reintroduced birds even got a special name in Hawaiian.

Ullulu meow. The second word meowu. The second word meowu means moving smoothly, swiftly, silently, and peacefully

in remembrance of their historic journey from meihoa to Lesan.

The Ullulu remains dependent on these two small islands

and is still considered endangered by the U. the US and the state of Hawaii.

But in late 2023, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature reclassified the

species from critically endangered to just endangered, a step that

recognizes the Ullulu's progress away from the brink of extinction.

For Bird Note, I'm Michael Stein. You're going to.