Extinct birds: First declared avian extinctions of 21st century

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Representational Image
Representational Image

New Delhi : A latest report by scientists claims that eight species of birds is on the verge of extinction. It has been declared that it the first avian extinctions of the 21st century, according to a report in the British newspaper, The Guardian.

The list of extinct bird species include Spix’s macaw, the Alagoas foliage-gleaner, the cryptic treehunter, the Pernambuco pygmy-owl, the poo-uli, or black-faced honeycreeper and the glaucous macaw. Scientists say that the five new extinctions have occurred in South America due to deforestation.

The avian study was conducted by “BirdLife International”, a non-profit organization and the findings were published in the journal Biological Conservation. Accordingly, researchers’ assessed 51 species judged “critically endangered” on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) “Red List” by using a new statistical method.

Four out of the eight vanished species belong to Brazil. The Spix’s macaw, a type of parrot, was last sighted in the wild in 2000. The Alagoas foliage-gleaner, a small forest bird, became extinct in 2011.

Scientists mentioned that the cryptic treehunter has not been seen in the wild since 2007, when its forest home in Murici in north-eastern Brazil was destroyed so as to cultivate with sugar cane plantations and pasture.

Also, the Pernambuco pygmy-owl, a 15cm-tall owl that eats insects hasn’t been seen in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco since 2002.

Coming to glaucous macaw, which is on the fifth position in the list of extinction, the bird once found in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil before its palm grove habitat was destroyed to make space for farming.

Another species on the list is the poo-uli, or black-faced honeycreeper, which was found on the island of Maui in Hawaii but was last sighted in 2004.