Honolulu Zoo staffers Friday were growing more concerned about the health of three exotic birds that escaped earlier this week after vandals cut holes in their cages.
By Friday afternoon only a male buff-headed ground dove was seen on zoo grounds. A red Eclectus female parrot that had hung around a couple days probably left, and a gray tawny frogmouth remained unaccounted for, said Tommy Higashino, acting zoo director.
“Very worried about the tawny because it was a hand-fed bird,” he said. “And also very concerned about the Eclectus. It’s going on four days now.”
Zoo officials said someone cut open 24 bird cages between 6:30 p.m. Monday and 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, allowing the three birds to escape. Police said Wednesday they had no suspects. Higashino said the cages have been patched.
Higashino said the tawny probably was somewhere in the zoo because it was not a strong flier, but it has not been seen outside its cage. Since hatching, it has been hand-fed crickets, newborn mice and day-old chicks.
He said staff could no longer hear or spot the parrot at the zoo Wednesday afternoon. That day, Higashino said, he unsuccessfully checked on a report of the parrot at Moiliili Neighborhood Park, which seemed too distant for the bird to fly because “it’s probably dehydrated and hasn’t eaten for a while.”
He said the parrot was on a special pellet-food diet.
The loose dove remained at the zoo, seen around its cage, even alighting on the wire, apparently trying to get with its mate, but staff don’t want to grab at it and risk scaring it away. They have tried to lure the dove by placing its daughters in a small cage inside a larger cage, in the hope that the bird will fly into the larger cage.
Higashino said the staff would try to catch the dove’s mate to lure the male dove at risk of disturbing a new nest in the same exhibit of golden white-eyes from a conservation program in the Mariana Islands. The commotion may cause the white-eyes, which are rare in captivity, to abandon their nest.
“We may be sacrificing this nesting of the golden white-eyes,” he said. “It’s a pretty significant nesting, and we want to see it through.”
Zoo staff, who work seven days a week, will keep trying to retrieve the birds.
“We have people looking out,” Higashino said, adding about a dozen reports of sightings have been called in for the tawny and the parrot. “The (Aloha Hawaiian Parrot Association) has put out the word to their members. The community is rallying around these animals.”
