Guam kingfisher vanished in 1980s, now 4 chicks are helping its comeback

The Guam Kingfisher is known as the "sihek" in Chamorro, the native language of the Marianas Archipelago and is the rarest species at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia. The bird is classified by the IUCN as extinct in the wild, meaning a single one is not present outside the conservation centre. The tale is a classic example of the workings of nature's ecosystem, which forms its own food cycle as it goes.An enemy aboardBrown tree snakes were accidentally brought to the island on military cargo ships and planes after World War II. Soon they wiped out 10 of the 12-13 species of birds on the island. Today, the only remaining forest birds on the island are the Micronesian starling and the Mariana swiftlet.The disappearance of birds from the ecosystem also left it broken.