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From the majestic bald eagle to the precious puffin, the United States is home to more than 800 species of birds.
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Worldwide, that number soars to above 10,000.
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But today, about one in eight bird species are threatened with extinction due to habitat loss, climate change, pollution and invasive species.
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To combat these threats, major conservation efforts are underway, like the renowned breeding program at San Antonio Zoo.
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I'm here to meet Director of Aviculture Joseph San Miguel, who's working to save one of the world's most endangered birds, the Guam Kingfisher.
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Joseph, Hi.
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Nice to meet you.
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Welcome to San Antonio Zoo.
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Let's go see some kingfishers.
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OK, So this is Micronesian Kingfisher habitat.
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Yes, it is.
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This is our breeding pair.
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They lay eggs.
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And so we're getting ready for breeding season.
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We'll collect the eggs and we will artificially incubate these eggs.
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They're extremely healthy.
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You can tell by their color and robust look.
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I love the coloration.
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Oh, yeah.
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So they are.
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The female is the one with the white breast and the male is the one with the cinnamon.
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So I see these colorful birds weigh just two to three oz each.
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Less than 200 of them exist in the entire world.
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The different names for the species.
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All the same bird is a Micronesian Kingfisher, the Guam Kingfisher and Sea Hec.
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They're native to the Pacific island of Guam, but they're no longer found there.
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In the 1980's, the Guam Kingfisher went extinct in the wild, falling prey to an invasive species called the brown tree snake.
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The brown tree snake was introduced to the island of Guam.
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It is an injurious species and basically it's just grown out of control.
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So now it's basically has decimated the island.
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So all the wildlife that was there is now gone.
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Before it was too late, the last 29 kingfishers were brought into captivity where the fragile population is being revived.
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There's a breeding program, the SSB Species Survival Plants, where the birds are managed prop and we propagate and raise all the babies for this program.
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This morning we brought this breeding pair a nutritious meal.
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Should we give them a little?
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Yeah, we can give a little dinner.
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The little wax worm.
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We have a little meat, a little lizard, so we have a little bit of everything.
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So it's a typical diet that they might collect in the wild.
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Yes.
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There you go, kids.
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Dinner is served.
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We have very qualified people working at our zoo that are dedicated and do everything daily to make sure that these birds are fed well kept.
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We have great husbandry.
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We have wonderful veterinarians that keep our birds healthy and viable.
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When eggs are produced, they're carefully monitored in a special facility next door.
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Welcome to the nest.
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This is our facility.
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We raise all our little babies.
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So we don't have a Micronesian to show you.
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We have something that's really just as cool.
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So I want to show you.
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And then we're going to feed it a day old chick called a fairy Bluebird.
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Day old day old.
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Adult fairy birds are known for their deep blue plumage.
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All three species of these birds are native to southern Asia, and two of them are considered threatened.
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Less than 24 hours ago, this was in an egg.
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It wasn't an egg.
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Oh my, look at that.
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That is the tiniest, cutest thing I've ever seen.
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Look at that.
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Very fluffy and very hungry.
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A Micronesian is actually smaller than that.
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Even smaller than even smaller.
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I can't imagine it is ready to eat.
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It's ready.
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It's hungry.
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So we'll call Brooke over so that way she can feed our little baby fairy Bluebird.
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Are you surrogate mom now?
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What?
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What are you feeding it?
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So this is a combination of pinky guts for protein and papaya to help with digestion.
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I see.
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There he goes.
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Oh, look at that.
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Well, you seem to be serving the right thing.
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The lighting sounds that might come from another bird, which will trigger it.
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Look at that.
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Wow.
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Down it goes.
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And this chick is hungry.
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Look at that.
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And how does this one appear to be doing to you?
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This one appears to be doing really well.
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Yeah.
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This one's growing just how we would expect it to grow and giving great feeding responses, as you can see.
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There we go.
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That was the last bite.
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And then the same thing happens to the Guam King Fisher.
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It's the same way.
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Incredibly, a small number of the Guam kingfishers that were raised in captive breeding programs were released on the Palmyra Atoll in the Pacific, more than 3000 miles east of Guam.
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Recently, these birds laid their very first egg in the wild.
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It's a hopeful sign for the recovery of their entire species.
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So that that's one of the most incredible things I've ever seen.
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And the success to me is incredible.
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So the Guam Kingfisher, Guam still has a problem with predators.
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Palmyra Island has little to no predation, right?
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Yes.
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No snakes.
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The goal is that we'll continue to propagate and keep making babies and hopefully then we get get our birds out there in the wild.
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And that's that's the end game.
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That's what we're doing this for.
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I think it's going to happen.
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I think so too.
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Yes, we're pretty determined we're going to get this done.
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It just takes time.
