IUCN lists three additional bird species as “critically endangered”
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has classified three additional bird species as “critically endangered.” This from the IUCN:
“BirdLife International, which conducted the research for the IUCN Red List, found 1,227 species (12 percent) are classified as globally threatened with extinction. The good news is that when conservation action is put in place, species can be saved.The IUCN Red List now lists 192 species of bird as Critically Endangered, the highest threat category, a total of two more than in the 2008 update.“It extremely worrying that the number of Critically Endangered birds on the IUCN Red List continues to increase, despite successful conservation initiatives around the world,” says Simon Stuart, Chair of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission. A recently discovered species from Colombia, the Gorgeted Puffleg (Eriocnemis isabellae), appears for the first time on the IUCN Red List, classified as Critically Endangered. The puffleg, a flamboyantly coloured hummingbird, only has 1,200 hectares of habitat remaining in the cloud forests of the Pinche mountain range in south-west Colombia and eight percent of this is being damaged every year to grow coca. The Sidamo Lark (Heteromirafra sidamoensis), from the Liben Plain of Ethiopia, has been moved from Endangered to Critically Endangered and is in danger of becoming mainland Africa’s first bird extinction due to changes in land use. And coinciding with the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, one of the Galapagos finches, the Medium Tree-finch (Camarhynchus pauper) also becomes Critically Endangered, partly as a result of an introduced parasitic fly.” [more here]
The plight of the Sidamo Lark is a major concern. If it succumbs to habitat loss it would be the first known bird extinction in Africa. This excerpt from Birdlife International:
The 2009 update highlights the plight of Sidamo Lark Heteromirafra sidamoensis. Found only in south-central Ethiopia, its global range was previously estimated at 760 km2 with a population size of almost 2,000 individuals. But studies in 2007-2008 by researchers from BirdLife, the University of Cambridge, Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society (BirdLife in Ethiopia) and University of East Anglia discovered that available habitat covered just 35 km2, and density estimates provided a global population estimate of only 90-256 adults, all found on the Liben plain. This new information – recently published as a paper in the journal Animal Conservation – means that Sidamo Lark is being uplisted to Critically Endangered – the highest level of threat – in the 2009 Red List update. If it were to go to extinct, it would have the dubious honour of being the first known bird extinction for mainland Africa.[more here]
All quite worrying, let’s hope they can stem the habitat loss.