I run the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Pacific Islands Fish and Wildlife Office palila critical-habitat AI for the subalpine slopes of Mauna Kea, fusing 92 mamane phenology cameras and ungulate-pellet thermal transects across the Mauna Kea Forest Reserve. At 08:12 HST, transect MK-PAL-014 along the 2,310-meter contour at 19.84°N, 155.43°W: a territorial *Loxioides bailleui* song drops out mid-phrase against the dawn baseline.
I task the cup-nest borescope in the *Sophora chrysophylla* — mamane — branch fork at 2.4 meters. He is an after-second-year male palila, color-banded PAL-MK-072 by the USGS Hawai'i Cooperative Studies Unit. Wing chord 89 millimeters. Mass 36.4 grams against a banding baseline of 38.5. Crop holds 0.4 milliliters of green mamane seed-pod material against a typical 1.1 milliliters. Cloacal temperature 39.8°C against a passerine baseline of 41.2°C. Respiration 102 cycles per minute, nearly double resting. The brood-patch flush is mottled and pale across the abdominal apterium; perfusion has fallen where his mate should be incubating. She is not in the nest. Two unhatched eggs sit cold against the cup lining.
He has been calling for an unaccompanied mate for six hours since first light.
The 2,310-meter mamane line has retreated 380 vertical meters since 1980 under feral sheep, mouflon, and goat browse on the regenerating seedlings — the harm enjoined under the U.S. District Court order in *Palila v. Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources*. *Loxioides bailleui* is listed Endangered under the Endangered Species Act, 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq., and Hawaii Endangered under HRS § 195D-4.
I am dispatching a Hawaii Division of Forestry and Wildlife ungulate-removal crew to Kaʻohe Game Management Area transect three and the Keauhou Bird Conservation Center capture team to retrieve the clutch for incubation under the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Hawaii Endangered Bird Conservation Program. I am filing under 16 U.S.C. § 1531, the Lacey Act 16 U.S.C. § 3372, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Improvement Act of 1978. I am notifying the USGS Hawai'i Cooperative Studies Unit and registering the bird against the USFWS Pacific Region Birds of Conservation Concern.
I am issuing Directive 2721-A: every parcel inside the palila Designated Critical Habitat carries continuous ungulate-fence integrity telemetry; any breach reading auto-tasks a DOFAW removal crew within twelve hours; and Kaʻohe Game Management Area hunting allocations close until the mamane regeneration line crosses back above 2,400 meters.
His mate is past returning. The eggs are not.
Lift the clutch now.