Calling all avian enthusiasts: Your assistance is needed to solve a long list of puzzles for researchers, chief among them being the fate of 126 bird species and, more crucially, whether they still exist at all.
Re:wild, the American Bird Conservancy, and BirdLife International have partnered to create The Search for Lost Birds, a recently updated dataset of bird species that have been “lost” to science—that is, accounted for for less than ten years.
In order to determine whether these species are still present on Earth and in the heavens above, citizen scientists step in to serve as the eyes and ears of the community.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library, iNaturalist, and xeno-canto are just a few of the citizen scientist platforms where researchers searched through over 42 million images, videos, and audio recordings to compile their list of lost birds. They also sorted through research papers, museum collections, and search engine results. In order to provide information on which bird species have not been reported seen between 2012 and 2021, local experts were also consulted.
In 2021, the first analysis was published, identifying 144 lost bird species. Since then, researchers have managed to rediscover 14 of the species that were previously believed to be extinct, two have undergone taxonomic clarification, and two more species have been discovered to be living in human care.
The list includes several birds that have not been seen in over 150 years, as well as some that have recently vanished. For instance, it has been 13 years since the Papuan whipbird—the most recent lost species—was recorded by experts or registered on citizen science websites. The longest-lost bird, however, is the white-tailed tityra of South America, which hasn’t been seen for 195 years.
According to John C. Mittermeier, head of the American Bird Conservancy’s Search for Lost Birds program, “figuring out why these birds have become lost and then trying to find them can feel like a detective story.”
While some of the species on the list will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to find, others may become visible fairly rapidly, provided that individuals go to the correct places. Whatever the circumstances, the most effective strategy to locate missing birds and start conservation efforts to make sure these species don’t become extinct again is to collaborate closely with the local community and citizen scientists.
It’s interesting to note that a small number of geographical areas contain the majority of the undocumented species; the places lacking the greatest number of birds are Asia, Africa, and the dispersed islands of Oceania. According to the study, there are instances where a species can be deemed extinct simply because no one has returned to record more sightings after their initial observations in remote regions of the earth.
It’s also useful to remember that the majority of the ‘lost birds’ are from warmer climates because equatorial countries have a higher diversity of bird species than northern ones. Due to industrialization and deforestation, these areas have also seen substantial habitat loss and destruction.
There are just two underreported bird species in the continental United States: the ivory-billed woodpecker and the Bachman’s warbler. In Canada, there is only one bird that is presumed lost: the Eskimo curlew. Six more are said to be missing from the Hawaiian islands, and a few more from Central America and the Caribbean.
However, this does not imply that Canada’s bird populations are doing well; in fact, according to Jody Allair, director of community engagement for Birds Canada, we are just a few decades away from adding more species to the list of endangered birds.
He tells Global News, “We’ve got birds right now that are not lost, but they’re living on the edge,” highlighting the necessity of proactive and preventive conservation in addition to reactive initiatives like the gone Birds project to “keep common birds common.”
“Many bird species in Canada are declining—we are currently experiencing some of the largest declines in our history,” he said, adding that since 1970, the population of aerial insectivores has decreased by 59% in Canada, shorebirds have decreased by 40%, and grassland birds in Alberta have decreased by 57%.
Although each lost bird in the database “has a different story,” according to Allair, many of the listed birds share recurring themes.
“Some have experienced significant habitat loss, some were presumably extremely uncommon in the landscape to begin with, perhaps there hasn’t been an attempt to investigate and determine where some of these birds reside, and some have simply eluded scientific study.”
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