With extinction-level threats facing Hawaii’s native honeycreepers, a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity has nudged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to designate more than 275,000 acres on Kauai, Maui and Hawaii island as critical habitat for the the vividly red i‘iwi, often represented as a symbol of Hawaii.

There is hopeful news, though: Federal funds designated by the Biden administration will largely subsidize expansion of a captive bird facility on Maui to save critically endangered Hawaiian forest birds, at a cost of approximately $5 million. Federal money is also supporting a project to control mosquitoes, carriers of deadly avian malaria, in bird habitats.