3 More Birds Close To Extinction

GENEVA — An Ethiopian lark, a Galapagos finch and a spectacularly colored hummingbird only recently discovered in Colombia have been added to the list of the world's most threatened species, an environmental group said Thursday. The International Union for Conservation of Nature _ the producer each year of a Red List of endangered species _ said the Sidamo lark could soon become Africa's first known bird extinction as the Ethiopian savanna becomes overgrown by bush, farmland and overgrazing.

"This is a species that is absolutely on the edge," said Martin Fowlie, spokesman for the Britain-based BirdLife International, whose monitoring determines which birds are included on the list.

The Sidamo lark is joined as a "critically endangered" species by the medium tree-finch in Ecuador's Galapagos Islands and the gorgeted puffleg _ a Colombian mountain bird with an appearance as flamboyant as its name.

The black bird with a puffy white underbelly and a blue-and-green throat was only discovered in 2005, but is surviving on just 1,200 hectares (3,000 acres) of habitat left in the cloud forests of the Pinche mountain range, which are being lost to coca growing.

"Cocaine production is the main threat," Fowlie told The Associated Press, adding that only about 25 of the pufflegs have been seen. The total puffleg population, he said, "is likely to be incredibly small."

The situation for some species has improved, however.

New Zealand's Chatham petrel, whose dark gray stripes give its wings an "M" appearance, has been moved to endangered from critically endangered, thanks to conservation work from authorities, the conservation body said.

It said the Mauritius fody also has recovered from the brink of extinction after a community was moved to an offshore island free of predators, while Brazil's Lear's macaw, a massive blue parrot, has increased fourfold in recent years as a result of joint efforts between government authorities, environmentalists and local landowners.

"In global terms, things continue to get worse," said Leon Bennun, science and policy chief at BirdLife. "But there are some real conservation success stories this year to give us hope and point the way forward."

In total 1,227 species were classified as globally threatened with extinction. That accounts for 12 percent of all birds.

While some rare birds are becoming rarer, the conservation body also noted the decline of more common species such as North America's chimney swift. There are still believed to be millions of the long-range migrants in the skies, but the population fell nearly 30 percent in the last decade. It is now being qualified as a "near threatened" species.

Comments

[AmandaLS]

I think there needs to be more incentives for people to be more active in their communities as well as their daily lives to help reduce evironmental issues that influence the viability of these animals. The drug lords growing cocoa will likely continue their activities, but more oppertunities for other methods of legitimate and legal employment must be made to give some incentive for even people that see illegal activities as the only way the aquire wealth. Sadly I think we will lose many species before we ever learn much about them, others will die off within our lifetime. One could suggest that we round up all the endangered animals and care for them in artificial habitats, but would that be a fair solution? Perhaps it is a natural ebb and flow of the life cycle of on earth, that animals dye out and all of this conservation stuff is mass hysteria or something we know little about. Whatever is natural or not, whatever is good or not, we must try to save what animals we can, but we must also be logical enough to realise this sort of stuff happend. Species adapt and live while others die off, maybe that is just the way it is suppose to be.

[timezone]

I fear we all won't wake up and work to solve the world's problems until nearly everyone and everything is extinct. There are people still saying there's no global warming....

[Lex10]

But, but,......... Trump said Carrie Prejean gets to keep her crown!

[Dbos]

As glen beck says start raising them for food .

[thenorthshore]

blame it all on bush

its bushs fault

[priscianusjr]

Many bushes are also critically endangered.

[kareemachan]

Hopefully.

[rwext]

This particular Galapagos finch is endemic to the particular island where volcanic eruptions occur . Many species only exist on individual islands ... While man does wreak havoc on countless species of fauna and animal life the globe over , there are some that become extinct due to natural selection

[kareemachan]

But in this case, probably more due to the introduction of rodents to the islands.

[rwext]

You are right along with feral cats that they are trying to eradicate

[sc300nc]

Isn't that how evolution works? The strong ones adapt and thrive, the weak ones do not.

[JohnJames]

When humans destroy or disrupt complex ecosystems few if any of the species can adapt - they're dependent on the complexity to which they have adapted over the course of millions of years of evolution. The result is ever declining biodiversity but, yes, pigeons, rats and dandelions will always be with us - the adaptable superstars to artificial man-made environments. Not a good thing.

[priscianusjr]

Adapt to what? To their environment. Environment is an ecology in which all species are interconnected. The more links, the more robust the environment. Losing links destabilizes the whole ecology. Sure, some species will adapt, that's how you get a degraded environment. Your idea of evolution is the simplistic model based on British 19th-century economic theory. This comes not from Darwin but from Herbert Spencer. We've just seen what happens when the "strong" banks "adapt" to their environment and the "weak" do not. Good luck with that.

[StringOfLights]

Dude, this isn't evolution. This is a full-on assault to natural systems.