#ake‘ake

The cryptic, nocturnal seabird species is native to Hawai‘i and inhabits remote areas of the state, with the vast majority likely breeding on Kaua‘i. Though the storm-petrel is widespread across the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans with numbers estimated at 150,000, the Hawaiian population is small, maybe fewer than 250 pairs. It is listed as Critically Endangered. As Wang and a group of fellow Hawai‘i Island biologists have learned, it is challenging to locate and estimate the population size of the smallest and rarest seabird species to breed in Hawai‘i.