A female pueo that was found struggling to breathe in July is back in the wild after treatment for pneumonia and about two months of care. The Hawaiian short-eared owl was released Oct. 2 at Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi, where she had first been captured and fitted with a tracking transmitter in 2021. The Marine Corps and KHON2 reported the release on Oct. 13; that is when the news was published, not when the bird was released.
The path back started July 30, when a biological monitor with Hamer Environmental found the owl in a polishing pond at the base’s water reclamation facility. She had bands on her legs and a transmitter, identifying her as a bird that had been part of a University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa study. The monitor reported the band information to the U.S. Geological Survey Bird Banding Laboratory and local U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff, who confirmed the research connection.
The owl first went to Feather & Fur Animal Hospital in Kailua. On Aug. 1, she entered the care of the Hawaiʻi Wildlife Center, whose hospital and rehabilitation facility is on Hawaiʻi Island. The center’s team treated her pneumonia and monitored her recovery. As her condition improved, staff moved her to an outdoor aviary, where she regained strength and practiced flying in preparation for release.
The release brought together the base’s Environmental Compliance and Protection Division, Hamer Environmental and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Pacific Region. Marine Corps photos document the team transporting the owl to the site and opening the carrier. The official release said her return supports ongoing work to monitor native wildlife and protect natural resources at the installation. It is a record of one bird’s care and return, rather than evidence that pueo numbers overall are increasing.
The owl’s bands also opened a small window onto her earlier life. Researchers first captured and released her at the base’s Nuʻupia Ponds Wildlife Management Area in May 2021. They fitted her with bands and a transmitter as part of a study, funded by the base’s Natural Resources program, examining where pueo live and how they move. The transmitter stopped working in October 2021, but four months of GPS data showed that she spent much of her time at the base, with occasional trips to Kāneʻohe and Kailua. Her 2026 discovery showed that the marked bird was alive years after researchers last received location data; it does not tell us where she spent the intervening years.
Pueo are Hawaiian short-eared owls, an endemic subspecies found across the main Hawaiian Islands. Hawaiʻi’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife says they are listed as endangered on Oʻahu. The agency describes them as active during the day and often seen hovering or soaring over open areas. That local status gives this individual return particular meaning, while the careful wording matters: a single successful rehabilitation is welcome news, but it cannot show whether the population is recovering or what risks the species faces overall.
The state wildlife agency says pueo occupy a range of habitats and are more often seen in open areas. It also notes that their broad habitat use and limited historical population data make it difficult to identify the habitat factors most important to them. Habitat loss is a particular concern for Oʻahu pueo, and disease and introduced predators are among the pressures that can affect native birds. The reports do not say what caused this owl’s pneumonia.
Hawaiʻi Wildlife Center CEO Linda Elliott told KHON2 that returning each pueo to the wild is meaningful, especially on Oʻahu, where the owl is endangered. The center says it cares for native birds and bats from across the state. In this case, recovery depended on multiple kinds of help: a field monitor finding the bird in the polishing pond, veterinary care, rehabilitation, records that let biologists identify her, and partners coordinating a return at the place tied to her earlier study.
That chain of work did not answer every question. The released owl’s four months of past GPS data provide only a partial snapshot, and the published accounts do not report post-release tracking or observations. What they do document is a clear sequence: a pueo found on July 30, identified through her bands, treated for pneumonia, prepared for flight, and released on Oct. 2.
Reader responses