Extinct Birds on Your Life List (2 Viewers)

[THE_FERN]

Here are my critically endangered species, primarily from Colombia, Brazil, Hawaii and Kenya

Brazilian Merganser
Hooded Grebe
Grenada Dove
African Penguin
Newell’s Shearwater
Black Stilt (recovering well)
Spoon-billed Sandpiper
White-headed Vulture
Hooded Vulture
White-backed Vulture
Ruppell’s Vulture
Ridgway’s Hawk
Great Green Macaw
Yellow-naped Amazon
Marsh Antwren
Orange-bellied Antwren
Urrao Antpitta
Araripe Manakin
Chestnut-capped Piha
Banded Cotinga
Alagoas Tyrannulet
Taita Apalis
Straw-headed Bulbul
Palila
Akekee
Antiochia Brushfinch

Yes there are quite a few there I left out as I didn't think extinction risk is high. Taita apalis isn't (shouldn't be) a species according to hbw if I remember commentary.

How rare is great green macaw? It wasn't exactly hiding in Darien...

(I was surprised to see military macaws on several occasions in Mexico)

Perhaps in contrast I guess everything in Indonesia is doomed

 

[TicoTyler]

Yes there are quite a few there I left out as I didn't think extinction risk is high. Taita apalis isn't (shouldn't be) a species according to hbw if I remember commentary.

How rare is great green macaw? It wasn't exactly hiding in Darien...

(I was surprised to see military macaws on several occasions in Mexico)

Perhaps in contrast I guess everything in Indonesia is doomed

Then again, I suppose there's a difference between rare and at risk of extinction. There are a few hundred Great Green Macaws in Costa Rica and they're not hard to find in the right area. But their reliance on a single species of tree that was historically logged severely puts them at a risk as the trees take a long time to regrow.

 

[jurek]

The IUCN categories are not linked to any objective probability of extinction.

If somebody is interested in seeing a bird before it goes extinct, the places to go are Hawaii, East Brazil and Philippines. All have birds which are really living dead, with no longer sustaining populations and few to below 50 individuals. BTW, all are threatened by (past) habitat destruction and introduced diseases.

 

[THE_FERN]

The IUCN categories are not linked to any objective probability of extinction.

They are meant to be. Such things are difficult to measure (at best)

 

[James Lowther]

Pretty sure all those species Jurek is talking about will be listed as critically endangered.

To be listed as CE birds much reach at least one of the following criteria

A: Population Size Reduction

1. The rate of reduction is measured either over a 10 year span or across three different generations within that species.
2. The cause for this decline must also be known.
3. If the reasons for population reduction no longer occur and can be reversed, the population needs to have been reduced by at least 90%
4. If not, then the population needs to have been reduced by at least 80%

B: Reduction Across a Geographic Range

1. This reduction must occur over less than 100 km2 OR the area of occupancy is less than 10 km2.
   1. Severe habitat fragmentation or existing at just one location
   2. Decline in extent of occurrence, area of occupancy, area/extent/quality of habitat, number of locations/subpopulations, or amount of MI.
   3. Extreme fluctuations in extent of occurrence, area of occupancy, number of locations/subpopulations, or amount of MI.

C: Population Decline

1. The population must decline to less than 250 MI and either:
   1. A decline of 25% over 3G/10Y
   2. Extreme fluctuations, or over 90% of MI in a single subpopulation, or no more than 50 MI in any one subpopulation.

D: Population Size Reduction

1. The population size must be reduced to numbers of less than 50 MI.

E: Probability of Extinction

1. There must be at least a 50% probability of going extinct in the wild within over 3G/10Y

There might be relatively common (but rapidly declining) species on the CE list but it’s nonetheless a good objective source of extinction risk
James

 

[DMW]

It's been an interesting period in the last couple of decades where remarkably few bird species have gone extinct given the enormous pressures they face. I think the reality is that the advent of keen, competent local birders in the southern hemisphere has meant that new site discoveries have often outstripped the rate of loss. As visiting western birders, we typically all go to the same sites and when a bird disappears from it's only known site, we fear it might be extinct. Local birders often have a greater opportunity to explore new sites.

Sadly, I think that effect is likely to dissipate in the next decade. It seems to be already happening in Vietnam, where some of the endemics have become much harder to find in recent years despite the growth of birding as a hobby.

 

[MJB]

None so far, although I've only been birding since 2016. I have missed out on some species due to extinctions or population crashes.
I only spent a couple hours in the remaining habitat for Kauai forest birds in 2018, but just saw apapane and elepaio, about the only native species not at imminent risk of extinction. I've seen the Attwater's subspecies of greater prairie chicken at the NWR outside of Houston, but I dont believe that population is self-sustained, even if it's for some reason "countable". Whooping cranes are doing ok now, but I could imagine climate change really messing with their wintering grounds here on the Texas coast.

I've saw Puaiohi on Kauai in 2001 - I don't know if it's still hanging on. The nest was 2 metres off the boardwalk - I was privileged to accompany two researchers studying the species.
MJB

 

[hookem2010]

I believe their decline has slowed a bit, but they're still declining. I didn't make it into the Alakai swamp area, just along the trail overlooking Pihea Valley. Couldn't convince my new wife to go traipsing through the mud to go look for birds she wasn't interested in.

 

[CPP Gardener]

What a party pooper! Might have to rethink the relationship.