Endangered Birds in the News

What threat does climate change pose for bird species throughout Europe? This question lies at the heart of a recently-released report, A Climatic Atlas of European Breeding Birds, published by a partnership between Durham University, the RSPB and Lynx in association with the University of Cambridge, BirdLife International and the European Bird Census Council (EBCC).

A pair of birds recently took up residence in a hollowed-out cavity of a tree, probably hoping to get a bit of piece and quite before starting a family. Similar scenes are being repeated throughout the northern hemisphere, by countless pairs of birds. Some nest in trees, others in bird boxes, a few in tall grasses. Some pairs lay one egg, while others lay several. All, usually, do this without inspiring a whirl of press and excitement surrounding the event.

Seventeen juvenile whooping cranes were killed in severe storms that swept across central Florida last week. At the time of the storm, the endangered cranes were being housed inside an enclosure at the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge. The young cranes were among those trained in 2006 by Operation Migration conservationists to follow an ultralight aircraft. The training had led the birds from the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin to Florida's Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge earlier this year in an effort to help revive the wild, migratory population of these magnificent birds.

The Blue-throated Macaw (Ara glaucogularis) is a critically endangered bird that inhabits the savannas in the Beni province of Bolivia. This rare macaw faces a variety of threats, the most serious of which include habitat destruction and capture for the pet trade. Now, their valuable habitat is to be protected in the hope that the species will find a safe sanctuary in which to breed. The Asociacion Armonia, a Bolivian conservation organization, has joined forces with the American Bird Conservancy and World Land Trust to create the Barba Azul Nature Reserve.

Twenty-seven rare Rimatara lorikeets (Vini kuhlii) have been released on the Cook Island of Atiu in the South Pacific. The project, lead by Gerald McCormack of the Cook Islands Natural Heritage Trust, aims to establish a reserve population of the endangered bird. Other, small populations of the bird survive only on four islands in French Polynesia (an island chain just to the east of the Cook Island Archipelago).

BirdLife International reports that the Bermuda Petral (or 'Cahow' as it is known locally) has returned to nesting grounds on Bermuda's Nonsuch Island for the first time in over 400 years. Nonsuch Island is a 14-acre island located in Castle Harbor, a natural harbor formed by St. David's Island and the main island of Bermuda. The whole of Nonsuch Island has been established as a wildlife sanctuary and today offers secure habitat for the endangered petrals.

BirdLife International has called for immediate conservation action to protect the Tumbesian Endemic Bird Area, a region located in west Ecuador and north-west Peru. The area, once covered by a continuous stretch of deciduous dry forest, has suffered greatly from deforestation and habitat fragmentation. Of the more than 800 bird species that inhabit the Tumbesian region, 82 are endemic. Of the 82 endemic species, eight species are endangered.

A team of conservationists, 3 ultra-light aircraft, and 16 whooping cranes have recently passed the half-way mark of a 1230-mile southward migration from Wisconsin's Necedah National Wildlife Refuge to the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. This eclectic group began their journey on October 13, 2002, and has now traveled over 620 miles in 35 days. Each day, the team records its progress in an online field journal where readers can follow the day-to-day events and challenges the migrating cranes and their caretakers encounter.

The Grenada dove (Leptotila wellsi) is set to lose a large portion of its dry-forest habitat as plans take shape to build a luxury hotel in what is now Grenada's Mount Hartman National Park. The Grenada Government is preparing to sell off the national park to the Four Seasons Hotels and Resort Group who intend to construct a 150-room hotel, 300 luxury villas, and a golf course on the site. The Mount Hartman National Park, also called 'The Dove Sanctuary', is located in the southwest region of Grenada. It was established as a nature sanctuary in 1996 and was created as a means to compensate for habitat destruction elsewhere on the island. It currently supports 20 pairs of Grenada doves, one quarter of the worldwide population.

There is renewed hope for the protection of a critically endangered bird in India, BirdLife International revealed in a recent press release. Jerdon’s Courser (Rhinoptilus bitorquatus), a small ground-dwelling wading bird in India, was thought to have been extinct since the early 20th century. But in 1986, the bird was rediscovered in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The rediscovery lead to the establishment of the Sri Lankamalleswara Wildlife Sanctuary to protect the critically endangered bird.

A study conducted by the University of California, Santa Cruz, has been monitoring the health of critically endangered California condors (Gymnogyps californianus). The data collected shows that the rare birds are dying from lead poisoning. Lead from shotgun pellets (left in the carcasses of dead animals such as deer that have been killed by hunters) is poisoning the endangered birds who feed on the remains, jeopardizing two decades of painstaking efforts to re-establish wild populations of the bird.