Nēnē (Hawaiian Goose)

This is a bird that was rebuilt one clutch at a time, and the numbers behind that are worth knowing before anyone treats it as a nuisance. Around the middle of the last century the entire wild population was roughly 30 birds. Hawaii's wildlife division puts it at as few as 30 in the 1950s, Cornell at an estimated 30 individuals by 1957, and the federal record describes the population as below 30 when the species was listed as Endangered in 1967. The date moves; the number does not. A captive propagation program began at Pohakuloa on Hawaii Island in 1949, well before federal listing, and ran continuously until 2011, when it was stopped because the wild birds were finally breeding on their own. Federal records name the Territory and later the State of Hawaii, The Peregrine Fund, and the Zoological Society of San Diego as the partners. More than 2,000 captive-reared birds were released between 1960 and 1997.

There is a British chapter to this, and it is genuinely part of the story. A parallel captive flock was established at Slimbridge in England in the early 1950s under Peter Scott, founded on birds from a private Hawaii Island flock. The start was unpromising, because the first two birds sent over both turned out to be female, and a gander had to be flown out afterward. The flock then bred so well that Slimbridge-raised geese were shipped back to Hawaii from 1962 onward for release on Hawaii Island and Maui. The sourcing is worth being clear about: the federal rule confirms the 1949 to 2011 Hawaii program and the existence of overseas captive flocks but does not name Slimbridge, so the British detail rests on the trust's own account and on a peer-reviewed environmental history rather than on a government source.

Productivity depends enormously on where the nest is, and the gap is not subtle. A federal study of wild birds on Hawaii Island and Maui in 1978 to 1981 found that of 140 breeding attempts, 36 percent produced a successful nest and only 7 percent produced fledglings. Compare that with one managed lowland resort property on mongoose-free Kauai in the 2022 to 2023 season, where 88 percent of nests hatched at least one gosling and 68 percent of all eggs laid produced a fledged bird. Predator-free lowland grass is a far better place to be a nēnē than a high-elevation lava field, and that single contrast explains both the recovery and the conflict.

The neck is the identification

It is unlike any other goose. Black face, cap, and hindneck, a large cream to buff cheek patch, and a whitish to pale yellow neck with deep furrows, marked by black and white diagonal stripes produced by rows of white feathers over dark skin. Bill, legs, and feet are black. The body is dark brown or sepia above with extensive white feather edging, lighter brown below with some dark barring.

Reduced webbing between the toes

It is the structural tell, and two independent sources give the same reason for it. Hawaii's wildlife division states that nēnē are more terrestrial than other geese and have longer legs and less webbing between their toes, which likely helps them walk on hardened lava. Cornell describes less foot webbing plus long toes and large nails helping them walk over lava and other rugged terrain. The bird also stands more upright than geese of similar weight, which lets it reach up into shrubs to browse.

They are not flightless

Nēnē are not flightless, though the mistake is a common one. They fly, they are capable of inter-island flight, and some birds commute daily between nesting and feeding areas. What is true is that the wings are small for the body, they are weak fliers compared with a Canada goose, they take off from and land on the ground rather than water, and they go through a seasonal wing molt during which they genuinely cannot fly. Flightless for part of the year is a very different statement from flightless.

Canada goose, settled by the neck

Canada goose is the look-alike, and the neck settles it in one glance. A Canada goose has an entirely black head and neck broken only by a white chinstrap that wraps under the chin. A nēnē has black confined to the face, cap, and hindneck, with buff cheeks and a buff to whitish furrowed neck. Nēnē is also the smaller bird and has the reduced toe webbing that a Canada goose does not. In practical terms the question rarely comes up, because Canada goose is not established in Hawaii and occurs there only as an infrequent vagrant. If you are on a Hawaiian island looking at a goose, it is almost certainly a nēnē, and the burden should be on proving otherwise before anyone acts.

The relationship has been dated

The relationship to Canada goose is real, not just a resemblance, and the divergence has been dated. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA from fossils indicates a single resident population of Canada goose in the Hawaiian Islands gave rise to at least three, and possibly five, true goose species, of which only the nēnē survives. A 2024 federal status review puts the divergence of the Hawaiian lineage from the Canada goose lineage at an estimated 0.890 million years. Cornell calls Canada goose the nēnē's closest living relative. So the visitor who says it looks like a Canada goose is not wrong about the family, only about the species and about everything that follows legally from that.

A note on the scientific name

You may see two versions. Older federal documents and some database entries carry Branta (=Nesochen) sandvicensis. The 2019 final rule corrected the federal list, stating that Nesochen is not currently a scientifically accepted generic name for this species, and at the same time formally added the Hawaiian name to the list as an alternative common name alongside Hawaiian goose.

Group size is a quiet identifier

Nēnē are less social than other geese. Pairs and families stay tight, but flocks are usually smaller than 30 birds, and even within a flock unrelated individuals keep their distance from one another. A large, dense, mixing flock of geese on a water body does not fit this species.

Many Kauai birds are banded

Many of the birds on a managed Kauai property are individually banded. Resort and golf properties operating under conservation agreements track nēnē by colored, coded leg bands, with band numbers recorded against pair bonds and nest locations. One Kauai property's 2022 to 2023 season recorded 50 state-banded birds and one federally banded bird using the grounds on top of the 25 nesting pairs it was already monitoring. A band is a sign that this bird is already in somebody's dataset.

This is not an infestation

There are no signs of one. Nēnē do not enter buildings, do not nest in structures, and no property damage, foundation damage, chewing, attic noise, or odor is documented for the species. What follows is what a homeowner, groundskeeper, or property manager would actually notice.

A family grazing on irrigated turf

A pair or family group grazing on short, irrigated, fertilized turf. That is the whole attraction. Federal analysis names the young shoots of recently mown or irrigated lawns along roadsides and golf courses as a specific draw, and notes the birds forage along highway edges and ditches because mowing plus pavement runoff produces better grass there than anywhere nearby.

A ground nest from late October

A ground nest under a shrub, from as early as late October. Look for a shallow scrape with a raised rim of soil, leaves, twigs, and feathers, lined with down. On Kauai check under Christmas berry, shrub verbena, and ironwood; on Hawaii Island and Maui under native pūkiawe, ʻaʻaliʻi, and ʻōhiʻa. One Kauai property found its first nest of the 2022 to 2023 season on October 25 and its last on January 3.

Goslings with two attending adults

Goslings on the ground with two attending adults. They leave the nest within a day or two of hatching and feed themselves immediately, so a walking brood is normal and does not mean anything has gone wrong.

Birds that will not fly off in midwinter

Between December and April adults are molting and goslings have not grown flight feathers. If a family group walks away from you instead of flying, that is the diagnostic sign for this season, and it changes what is legal on the property.

Birds standing on pavement

Hawaii's wildlife division gives the reason, and it is worth repeating to anyone who wonders why the birds keep choosing the road: paved surfaces look like pahoehoe lava to a nēnē, which makes them a good place to warm cold feet in the morning.

Colored leg bands

On Kauai, resort properties working under a habitat conservation plan band their resident birds and track them individually. Do not attempt to read a band by approaching the bird.

What you will not find

No droppings inside a structure, no gnawing, no wall or attic sounds, no burrows, no smell. If something is getting into your building, it is not this bird.

Removal is not an option

There is no lawful way to make it one. The nēnē is federally listed as Threatened, protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and listed as Endangered by the State of Hawaii under that state's own rule exhibit, which is three separate bodies of law covering one bird. There is nothing to exclude, because the species never enters a structure. What follows is what you must not do, the narrow set of things a landowner may lawfully do, and who to call.

Never harm or relocate a nēnē

Never take, harm, harass, capture, kill, or relocate a nēnē. The 2019 downlisting did not relax the take prohibition. The federal special rule expressly keeps it in place, along with prohibitions on import and export, possession of unlawfully taken specimens, interstate or foreign commerce, and sale. State law prohibits take independently, and the species is still state-listed as Endangered even though it is federally Threatened.

Never disturb a nest

Do not reason from Canada goose rules either. This is the mistake most likely to get a property manager in trouble. Canada goose has a federal nest and egg depredation order that a registered landowner may use to oil or destroy eggs. Nēnē has no equivalent. No registration, no order, no homeowner path to touching a nest, an egg, or a gosling. Anyone applying Canada goose logic to a nēnē is applying the wrong species' rules.

Never feed them

Never leave pet food outside either. This is the instruction both the federal and state agencies repeat hardest, because it is the upstream cause of most nēnē deaths. Feeding conditions the birds to be unafraid of people, which brings them to cars, roads, parking lots, and homes. Hawaii's wildlife division states directly that nēnē should not eat human food or cat food, and that leaving food out for feral cats causes the same problem while adding a disease pathway.

Never haze a brooding adult

That covers an adult with goslings and an adult in molt. For a landowner working under the 4(d) rule, that bar holds at any time, with no seasonal exception and no property-type exception.

Do not expect a removal company

Do not call a pest control or nuisance wildlife company expecting a removal. There is no lawful removal service for this species. A licensed operator has no more authority over a listed bird than a homeowner does, and no service to perform.

There is a legal way to deter

Here is the part that is genuinely useful, and that almost no general-audience source covers correctly: there is a legal way to deter nēnē, and it was written for exactly this situation. When the species was downlisted in 2019, the federal government adopted a section 4(d) rule specifically to give landowners management flexibility, because concern about penalties had itself become a barrier to recovery. Under that rule, intentional harassment that is not likely to cause direct injury or mortality is excepted from the take prohibition, and a person may haze nēnē on lands they own, rent, or lease, with no individual federal permit.

The permitted techniques

The rule names the permitted techniques, and this list is the actual regulatory text rather than someone's best guess. Predator effigies including raptor kites and predator replicas. Commercial chemical bird repellents. Ultrasonic repellers. Audio deterrents such as noisemakers and pyrotechnics. Herding or harassing with trained or tethered dogs. Access control including netting and fencing. Nēnē may also be harassed during surveys that benefit and further their recovery. All of it must avoid causing direct injury or mortality.

Four conditions ride on it

Four conditions ride on that permission, and they are not optional. First, before any intentional harassment during the breeding season, defined in the rule as September through April, a qualified biologist knowledgeable about nēnē nesting behavior must survey in and around the area for nests and goslings. The rule defines a qualified biologist as someone with both academic training in wildlife biology or a related discipline and demonstrated field experience with this species. Second, if a nest is found, federal and authorized state wildlife officials must be notified within 72 hours. Third, no disruptive activity may occur within a 100-foot buffer around any active nest or brood until the goslings have fledged, brooding and molting adults may never be harassed, and the landowner must arrange follow-up surveys by qualified biologists. Fourth, any injury or death connected to these activities must be reported within 72 hours, and remains may only be disposed of as the wildlife service directs.

Hawaii law may not line up

The most important caveat is that the federal rule does not change Hawaii law, and the two may not line up. The rule says so itself and then goes further. It states the federal understanding that Hawaii's endangered species statute contains no authority to issue an equivalent rule, that state incidental take requires a license attached to a habitat conservation plan or safe harbor agreement plus consultation with the state's recovery committee, and that Hawaii's own administrative rules for endangered and threatened wildlife did not allow permits for intentional harassment or hazing of a listed species, so changes to those state rules may be necessary. Nēnē is state-listed as Endangered, and that is not just the wildlife division's description of itself: the state's own administrative rule exhibit, the List of Species of Endangered Wildlife in Hawaii, carries the Hawaiian goose by name for its entire range. Nothing in the available research confirms that Hawaii has since amended its hazing-permit rules, and the chapter that contains them is in flux, with proposed amendments still posted against a Board of Land and Natural Resources meeting date in May 2026. So the federal government has expressly permitted landowner hazing under conditions, while the state may not have a mechanism to permit it. Confirm the current state position with the forestry and wildlife division before you start, not after.

Two other federal exceptions

Neither is a homeowner activity. Incidental take during nonnative predator control or habitat management carried out for nēnē conservation purposes, with reasonable care, is excepted. So are actions by state and local law enforcement officers, working with authorized biologists and rehabilitators, to aid or euthanize a sick, injured, or orphaned bird or to dispose of or salvage a dead one.

Stop the feeding, permanently

Stop the feeding first, permanently, and enforce it. On a resort, golf course, or association property, a posted and enforced no-feeding rule is the cheapest and highest-value intervention available, and it addresses the mechanism behind vehicle strikes, habituation, and much of the aggression risk to the birds themselves. Feeding feral cats counts, both because it draws nēnē to the food and because cats carry toxoplasmosis, which Hawaii's wildlife division names as a deadly disease that reproduces only in cats and that kills nēnē.

Slow the vehicles down

Put it in writing. Vehicle collision is the leading cause of death for adult nēnē. The Kauai resort with the best-documented program runs a 14 mile per hour property speed limit backed by speed bumps and dozens of crossing, slow-down, and do-not-feed signs, some permanent and some portable and repositioned as bird activity shifts across the property. That is the standard worth borrowing.

What a legal golf course does

What a legally operating golf course actually does, since this is the real-world template. On the Kauai property operating under federal and state incidental take authorizations, every golf cart carries a GPS system that maps current nest locations, flashes a warning as a cart nears a nest, throttles the cart to 5 miles per hour or less near a protected bird, and physically stops the cart from continuing on a route toward one. The course maintains a local rule allowing a player to move a ball away from a nest area. Starters and marshals get additional species training beyond the standard staff program, and grounds and golf staff are briefed every morning on where the birds are. Supplemental grain feeders are prohibited. Nests are monitored daily from September 15 through March 31 by designated biological monitors recording band numbers, pair bonds, nest locations, eggs laid, eggs hatched, goslings fledged, and mortalities. Predator control runs year-round: in one twelve-month reporting period that property removed 26 cats, 22 pigs, and 1,149 feral chickens across traps checked daily.

Federal specialists run the hazing

Hazing on that property is run by federal wildlife specialists, not by the resort, and the detail is instructive. A program that began in June 2019 and was announced that August puts professionally trained border collies and their handlers on the ground to flush nēnē away from the runways of the adjacent airport, which surrounds the resort. Handlers also work from golf carts, on foot at a walk or run, and with handheld flags and flashlights. A spotter with an infrared scope or night-vision binoculars tracks where flushed birds land so they can be moved again. The program deliberately excludes noise deterrents so as not to disturb resort guests, which is a real operational constraint worth knowing about before anyone buys a propane cannon. Only nēnē may be hazed, and not if they have goslings or are molting. Partners include the federal agriculture and wildlife agencies, the state land and natural resources and transportation departments, and the resort itself.

Translocation was abandoned

Translocation was tried at scale on Kauai and was abandoned. Between 2011 and 2016, 646 nēnē were moved off the island, 598 to Hawaii Island and 48 to Maui, under an emergency proclamation and a five-year management plan. State capture and translocation ended in March 2016, and nesting numbers on the resort began climbing again afterward. One professional-society account of the same program gives 652 birds rather than 646; the federal rule's figure is used here. The state's stated alternative, announced alongside the canine program, was to establish two new nēnē sanctuaries east and south of the airport in the hope that displaced birds would settle there instead.

Talk about a conservation agreement

A large landowner with recurring nēnē presence should be discussing a conservation agreement, not a deterrent purchase. Incidental take in Hawaii is authorized through a temporary license attached to a habitat conservation plan or a safe harbor agreement, with consultation by the state's endangered species recovery committee. That is a multi-year commitment with real obligations, including monitoring, predator control, financial assurances, and annual public reporting. The Kauai resort described above paid a one-time 85,000 dollar mitigation payment into the state endangered species trust fund and maintains a bond of 153,667 dollars as a financial assurance, against a permitted take ceiling of 17 birds over the life of the permit.

Call at once for an injured bird

Call immediately if a nēnē is injured, sick, or dead on your property. Federal reporting for injury or mortality connected to any excepted activity is required within 72 hours. The numbers come straight out of the federal rule: the wildlife service law enforcement office at 808-861-8525, the Pacific Islands fish and wildlife office at 808-792-9400, and Hawaii's division of forestry and wildlife at 808-587-0166.

Call before any deterrent

Call before you do anything if you are contemplating deterrents on a property nēnē use, especially between September and April. The pre-hazing nest survey by a qualified biologist is a condition of the federal exception, and Hawaii's own permitting position needs confirming separately. To report someone harming a protected species, Hawaii runs a 643-DLNR tip line and a reporting app.

Stop work if a nest turns up

Stop work and call if a nest, eggs, or goslings turn up on a construction, grading, or landscaping site. That is a take liability situation under both federal and state law. Permitted biologists exist for exactly this circumstance. Guessing does not.

Five things a resident can do

The five things a resident can actually do, in the state agency's own framing. Keep your food to yourself, meaning do not feed nēnē, do not feed feral cats, and do not leave pet food outside. Keep your dogs on a leash, because even well-behaved dogs can threaten or kill these birds and every Hawaii county has a leash law. Keep your cats indoors, because fed cats still hunt goslings and their waste spreads toxoplasmosis. Keep your speed down near nēnē, because a large bird needs a long runway to take off and cannot jump into the air to dodge a car. Keep your distance, because approaching for a photo can push a bird into a road, keep it from eating, or drive it off a nest.