Endangered bird species hatches in Virginia

FRONT ROYAL, Va. (AP) - One of the most endangered bird species on the plants has hatched at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Virginia.

WTOP-FM reports the female Guam kingfisher bird hatched at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology institute in Front Royal on May 17. There are about 140 Guam kingfishers in the world and they all live in human care.

According to a news release, the birds are territorial, and it has been difficult to match compatible breeding pairs. Since the brightly-colored bird's parents did not display appropriate parenting behaviors, keepers artificially incubated the egg and hand-raised the chick.

All existing Guam kingfishers are descended from 29 individual birds. They were taken from the wild into human care in the 1980s to create a breeding program to save the species from extinction.

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