Even before Hurricanes Irma and Maria, the entire recorded population of Puerto Rican Sharp-shinned Hawks was just 75 individuals in the 2017 breeding season. We feared the worst after the hurricanes, wondering if any bird could survive sustained winds of 155 mph.

We initially found just 19 individuals—a decline of 75%.

Hurricane Maria decimated the forests, actually stripping the leaves off the relatively few trees left standing. The majority of mature trees were blown down, uprooted, or snapped off, leaving only palm trees and tree ferns. Without foliage, nestlings don’t have shelter from heat, rain, or predators. Given the scale of devastation in Puerto Rico, we estimate full recovery of the forest could take up to 20 years.

Even adult birds are subject to starvation because their main prey—small birds like tanagers, warblers, and vireos—also depend on adequate forest habitat. With such difficult conditions, our first act was to provide supplemental food so the remaining Sharp-shinned Hawks could become healthy enough to breed.

As eggs appeared in the last two spring seasons, we carefully moved some into incubators to hatch in a secure, climate-controlled breeding facility on the island. Since these hawks normally produce a second set of eggs if the first set is lost, we are able to raise chicks in the safety of our facility without compromising the wild parents’ success. In our first year of captive-rearing, we raised and released six young as the wild pairs raised only two.

Since that first breeding season, we have continued to provide supplemental feeding to adult birds raising nestlings in the wild and have raised and released more captive-hatched birds. We are hopeful that this coming spring will bring the addition of more young hawks to the slowly recovering forests of Puerto Rico.