Following a review of 51 bird species considered Critically Endangered, a team of ornithologists recommends that eight such species be declared Extinct, Extinct in the Wild, or Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct). The most familiar of these species is likely Spix’s macaw. Fans of the 2011 movie Rio will remember Blu, a captive-raised Spix’s macaw, who… Read more »
Endangered California Condors to be released on Saturday, September 22, 2018, at Vermilion Cliffs National Monument. (The Peregrine Fund) There is nothing quite as iconic in the western United States as a California Condor soaring over the red-rock-canyon landscapes of northern Arizona and southern Utah. Thanks to people working together to recover this species, condors… Read more »
An organization instrumental in establishing the eastern migratory flock of whooping cranes has withdrawn from the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership and announced plans to disband. Between 2001 and 2015, Operation Migration pilots used ultralight aircraft to guide captive-hatched, imprinted whooping cranes—186 of them—along a migration route between Wisconsin and Florida. The aircraft-guided migration ended in… Read more »
2018 Has Been a Good Year for Whooping Cranes By Dawn Hewitt This has been a banner year for whooping cranes. Five young whooping cranes have been added to the nonmigratory flock in Louisiana; in May, a record 98 whooping crane nests were found at Wood Buffalo National Park, smashing the previous record of 82;… Read more »
Ultra-endangered Bahama Nuthatch Survives One of the most endangered birds in the Western Hemisphere was spotted in 2018 after two years with no sightings. The Bahama nuthatch is considered by some to be a subspecies of brown-headed nuthatch, while others consider it a separate species. Whatever its taxonomy, the small bird is on the International… Read more »
