HONOLULU — Nearly two dozen endangered birds will soon be making a new home in the Alakai Wilderness Preserve as part of a decade-long effort to increase their numbers on Kauai.

Twenty-three young puaiohi will be moved from the San Diego Zoo to the preserve over the next two weeks by zoo personnel, the Hawaii Division of Forestry and Wildlife and the U.S. Geological Survey. The release will be the 11th in 10 years.

The birds' new home won't be a paradise. The 2 1/2 ounce birds, which are brown with white rings around their eyes, will have to contend with nonnative predators and mosquitoes carrying avian malaria.