In the late 1960s, while the world preoccupied itself with rock-'n'-roll and flower power and moon landings, a small bird far out in the Indian Ocean came within a hair's breadth of vanishing forever.

The Seychelles Magpie Robin is about nine inches long, with inky blue-black feathers, and white patches along its wings. There may be only 200 or so of these beguiling birds in the world, all in ...

This early success gave the team the confidence to try reintroducing the species to other islands where it formerly lived. In 1994, they established a population on Cousin, a 70-acre island that had ...