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News from BirdLife International

1,221 and counting: More birds than ever face extinction

21-05-2007

Cambridge, UK: The latest evaluation of the world’s birds has revealed that more species than ever are threatened with extinction, and that additional conservation action is critical to reversing current declines. [1]

BirdLife International’s annual Red List update –which takes into account population size, population trends and range size for all 10,000 bird species worldwide-  states that 1,221 species are considered threatened with extinction and are to be listed as such on the 2007 IUCN Red List. [2]

The latest update also shows an additional 812 bird species are now considered Near Threatened, adding up to a total of 2,033 species that are urgent priorities for conservation action. [3]

The overall conservation status of the world’s birds has deteriorated steadily since 1988, when they were first comprehensively assessed. Now, more than a fifth (22%) of the planet’s birds is at increased risk of extinction.

The 2007 update has highlighted the deteriorating status of the world’s vultures: five more species have been ‘uplisted’ to higher categories of concern as a result of numerous threats. These include habitat loss, conversion and degradation (which remains the principal threat to all the world’s birds, impacting on 86% of Globally Threatened species), fewer feeding opportunities (as a result of declining wild ungulate populations on which to scavenge) and poisoning by the veterinary drug diclofenac – a factor behind rapid population declines in vultures across Asia in recent years. [4]

http://www.birdlife.org/news/pr/2007/05/2007_red_list_update.html