![]() As was the Brazilian alagoas foliage-gleaner, Philydor novaesi, whose last stand in 2011 was turned into sugar-cane plantations, and the Poʻouli, a.k.a. The species, which was last recorded in 2007 before its last known habitat was logged, was also classified as extinct by the team. ![]() Neverthless, that’s better odds than the Brazilian cryptic treehunter, Cichlocolaptes mazarbarnetti. the small population is vulnerable to genetic defects caused by inbreeding.” Still, as Nadia Drake points out for a separate article for National Geographic, the “remaining Spix's macaws are cloistered in captive breeding programs and refuges throughout the world. As Sarah Gibbens at National Geographic reports, up to 70 of the birds may still live in captivity, meaning there’s a chance they could one day return to the wild. A Spix’s macaw was believed to have been spotted in the wild in 2016, though that was likely an escaped captive bird before that, the last known sighting of the bird in the wild came in 2000. The most well-known species on that list of eight is the Spix’s macaw, Cyanopsitta spixii, the baby-blue Brazilian parrot species whose plight was the plot of the 2011 movie Rio. They found that three species were extinct, one was extinct in the wild and four are on the verge of extinction if they are not already gone. Over the course of eight years, the authors examined 819 records and 356 surveys of the birds and consulted with experts to come to their conclusions. The study statistically analyzed sightings and habitat loss of 51 critically endangered bird species not seen for 10 years or who’ve faced existential threats in that time. “Our evidence shows there is a growing wave of extinctions washing over the continent driven by habitat loss from unsustainable agriculture, drainage and logging.” “People think of extinctions and think of the dodo but our analysis shows that extinctions are continuing and accelerating today,” BirdLife chief scientist Stuart Butchart, lead author of the study published in the journal Biological Conservation, tells Barkham. Some are taking place on large continents, in particular South America, that once insulated the animals from human impact. But the latest extinctions highlight a concerning trend. Other, well, meatier species, like the dodo and the great auk were hunted as food by sailors, and some, considered agricultural pests, were exterminated on purpose. Historically, 90 percent of the estimated 187 species of birds that we know have gone extinct lived almost exclusively on small islands where they had no place to flee from invasive species or habitat loss. But Patrick Barkham at The Guardianreports that a new study put together by BirdLife International says its time to erect tombstones for four bird species that have disappeared from the wild over the last decade and to get the casket ready for four more that are almost certainly gone. It’s hard to say if a species has truly gone extinct or if they're are just being coy there are stories every year about birds once believed to be extinct that suddenly reappear. Any bird watcher can tell you-finding a rare species is maddening, with the birds popping up at unexpected times then hiding again for days, months and sometimes even years.
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