Download Birds swell the ranks of critically endangered species

Birds swell the ranks of critically endangered species
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00:01 14 May 2009 by Andy Coghlan
Magazine issue 2708.
Darwin would not be amused. A bird native to the Galapagos islands, the medium tree-finch, this
year joined 191 other bird species newly added to the critically endangered list, the roster of the
world's most threatened species.
But while the medium-tree finch is in jeopardy because of parasitic flies introduced to the islands,
most of the species on this year's red list of threatened species are imperilled by inexorable loss of
their habitat.
"The absolute number one factor is habitat destruction or deterioration," says Martin Fowlie of
BirdLife, the organisation in Cambridge, UK, which compiles the bird entries for the International
Union for the Conservation of Nature's red list of endangered species.
Overall, the number of threatened bird species rose this year by just one, to 1227 – about 12 per
cent of all species – with the 192 in the critically endangered category up just two. But the numbers
mask much wider fluctuations in the fortunes of troubled species, with 77 changing category from
last time, some up and some down.
Boost in numbers
Aside from the Galapagos medium tree-finch, eight other species were uplisted to critically
endangered. They include the sidamo lark (Heteromirafra sidamoensis) from the Liben Plain of
Ethiopia, which could become Africa's first bird extinction due to a change in land use.
There was some good news, however, with six critically endangered species downgraded to
"endangered". Some owed their reclassification to successful conservation programmes. The
threat to the Mauritius Fody, for example, was lifted by moving the remaining birds to an island off
Mauritius free of predators.
Another success story is Brazil's Lear's macaw, named after the English nonsense poet Edward
Lear. The spectacular parrot has increased fourfold in number through a joint programme involving
the Brazilian government, local landowners and conservation organisations.
Aside from habitat loss and predation, the other ominous factor is the impact of climate change,
says Fowlie. Mountain-living birds, for example, would die out if the climate they rely on shifts north
or south to non-mountainous zones.