The Cuban Sandhill Crane Grus canadensis nesiotes and Cuban Parrot Amazona leucocephala palmarum are considered endangered species in Cuba and the Isla de la Juventud (formerly Isla de Pinos). Coincident with a public education campaign, a population survey for these species was conducted in the northern part of the Isla de la Juventud on 17 December 1995, from o6hoo to 10hoo. Residents from throughout the island participated, manning 98 stations, with 1–4 observers per station. Parrots were observed at 60 (61.2%) of the stations with a total of 1320, maximum (without correction for duplicate observations), and 1100, minimum (corrected), individuals counted. Sandhill cranes were sighted at 38 (38.8%) of the stations, with a total of 115 individuals. Cranes and parrots co-occurred at 20 (20.4%) of the stations.

Collar (2007) attacked a recent paper of mine (Peterson 2006) on a number of grounds; he raised some valid points, and detected some errors in detail. Here, I respond to his criticisms, clarify misunderstandings, and urge the field to move beyond the status quo to consider the need for new taxonomic viewpoints to benefit bird conservation globally.

“I'd forgotten how trees full of bird sounds made you sense the world differently.” (Barbara Kingsolver, The Bean Trees)

No one I have ever met was more attuned to bird sounds, or to birds in general, than was Ted Parker. It was from Ted that many of us, who thought that we already knew a thing or two about birds, truly learned how to sense the world.

No matter when one first met, or heard of, Ted Parker, the name was already a legend. I first met Ted over 20 years ago, and like many people at the time I was already somewhat in awe of him. Then he was known for his birding exploits in the United States and in Mexico. Although I did not realize it at the time, he was already studying the birds of South America, and soon would be transforming our understanding of the avifauna of that continent. By the end of the 1970s, within just a few years of his first trip to the Andes, and without benefit of field guides or commerical bird tapes, he was already the field ornithologist of South America.

The Grey-winged Cotinga Tijuca condita, previously known from a single specimen collected in 1942, was rediscovered near the type-locality in the coastal hill ranges of Rio de Janeiro state, south-eastern Brazil, in November 1980. Fieldwork at two sites in November/December 1980 and November 1981 revealed the presence of 10 individuals: one calling male and one female in cloud-forest at 1,320 m in the Serra do Tinguá; and six calling males, one female and one unsexed bird in cloud-forest at 1,830-2,000 m in the Serra dos Órgãos. Two females were netted, and two calling males were seen well in the field. The plumage of calling males resembled that of females, but was brighter with more grey on the face. The voice was described as an explosive sooee-wheee. The calling posture was similar to that of pihas Lipaugus, and there was no indication of any lekking behaviour. The species appears to have a very restricted distribution, but there is no indication that it is under threat at the present time.

O cotingídeo Tijuca condita, previamente conhecido de um único indivíduo coletado em 1942, foi redescoberto próximo a sua localidade tipo nas montanhas da costa do estado do Rio de Janeiro, no sudeste do Brasil, em novembro de 1980. Observações no campo em duas localidades em novembro/dezembro 1980 e novembro 1981 revelaram a presença de 10 indivíduos: um macho cantando e uma fêmea em uma floresta de neblina a 1,320 m na Serra do Tinguá; seis machos, uma fêmea e um individuo de sexo não determinado em uma floresta de neblina a 1,830–2,000 m na Serra dos Órgãos. Duas fêmeas foram capturadas em rede e dois machos foram bem observados no campo. A plumagem dos machos assemelha-se a das fêmeas, contudo mais brilhante e acinzentado na face. O canto foi descrito como um explosivo sooee-wheee. A postura de canto foi semelhante à de outros cotingídeos Lipaugus e não há indícios de comportamento de leque. A espécie parece ter uma distribuição muito restrita, mas não ha indícios de que essa espécie esteja ameaçada no momento.

The extensive spatial organization of many large-bird populations is difficult to assess. We used a geographic information system to correlate vegetation structure with random sightings for four large bird species that occur throughout the 20,000 km2 Kruger National Park (KNP), South Africa. Vegetation structure was assessed visually during 1991-1992 for the 1093 2-5′-quadrats that cover the KNP. Sightings were made during 1991-1994 of Kori Bustard Ardeotis kori, Martial Eagle Polemaetus bellicosus, Lappet-faced Vulture Torgos tracheliotus and Southern Ground Hornbill Bucorvus leadbeateri, and their nest sites. As control, comparative data on ground hornbills were also available from annual aerial censuses during 1982-1994, and from records of nest sites during 1966-1996. Each species had its highest positive correlation with a different set of vegetation categories, ranging in value from the hornbill (1.13) and vulture (1.15) up to the eagle (1.32) and bustard (1.49). Nest sites had higher correlations (hornbill 1.65, vulture 2.85) than records of free-living birds. The same vegetation categories that had the highest correlations with random sightings of ground hornbills and their nests also had the highest correlations with the more extensive and systematic data from aerial census and long-term nest records. Our method of correlating vegetation structure with random data is predictive, testable and has application to the conservation management of other sparsely distributed species.

Liben Lark Heteromirafra archeri is a ‘Critically Endangered’ species threatened by the loss and degradation of grassland at the Liben Plain, southern Ethiopia, one of only two known sites for the species. We use field data from nine visits between 2007 and 2019 and satellite imagery to quantify changes over time in the species’ abundance and in the extent and quality of its habitat. We estimate that the population fell from around 279 singing males (95% CL: 182–436) in 2007 to around 51 (14–144) in 2013, after which too few birds were recorded to estimate population size. Arable cultivation first appeared on the plain in the early 1990s and by 2019 more than a third of the plain had been converted to crops. Cultivation was initially confined to the fertile black soils but from 2008 began to spread into the less fertile red soils that cover most of the plain. Liben Larks strongly avoided areas with extensive bare ground or trees and bushes, but the extent of these did not change significantly over the survey period. A plausible explanation for the species’ decline is that grassland degradation, caused before 2007 by continuous high-pressure grazing by livestock, reduced its rates of reproduction or survival to a level that could not support its previous population. Since 2015, communal kalos (grazing exclosures) have been established to generate forage and other resources in the hope of also providing breeding habitat for Liben Larks. Grass height and density within four grassland kalos in 2018 greatly exceeded that in the surrounding grassland, indicating that the plain retains the potential to recover rapidly if appropriately managed. Improvement of grassland structure through the restitution of traditional and sustainable rangeland management regimes and the reversion of cereal agriculture to grassland are urgently needed to avert the species’ extinction.

We investigated how North Island Weka Gallirallus australis greyi could be conserved in situ at East Cape, New Zealand using banded and radiotransmitter-carrying Weka to measure home range size and use, reproduction and mortality. We fitted radiotransmitters to 28 Weka with 75% of the subsequent fixes from 18 birds being obtained at intervals of < 4 days. Home ranges of 10 males had an estimated median size of 10.6 ha, while 5 female home ranges had an estimated median size of 3.5 ha. Home ranges of individuals of both sexes overlapped. Within their home ranges, Weka preferred bush relative to pasture and may have preferred pines to pasture. Weka did not significantly prefer bush to pines. Breeding occurred year-round, with a summer peak, but 11 breeding pairs raised only four chicks to independence in two years. The causes of egg and chick mortality could not be established, but predators killed six adults, motor vehicles killed six and one adult died in a trap. Measurements of body size revealed that a male-biased sex ratio was likely (67:33). We concluded that the recovery of the North Island Weka population in the East Cape region will require improving reproductive success and decreasing predation on adults. We recommend that managers focus on predator removal and habitat creation in future.

Aleutian Tern Onychoprion aleuticus numbers have been in steep decline at known Alaskan breeding colonies in recent decades (IUCN recently uplisted to ‘Vulnerable’). Available data suggest that most of the species may currently breed in Russia. Efforts to document global abundance and trends have been hampered by remoteness of colonies, lack of a formal monitoring programme, and the absence of reproducible population estimates with quantifiable errors, especially for large colonies. We surveyed four historically large colonies in Russia (2018) and Alaska (2019), which together may comprise 30–50% of the global breeding population. At each colony we obtained high resolution aerial photographs using a small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS). The large size of the colonies and the minimum altitude required to identify terns made it impractical to collect imagery of the entire colony. Instead, we employed a sampling approach, with sample locations selected based on spatially balanced acceptance sampling. Statistically sampled, low altitude sUAS images provided a fast, reproducible, and rigorous count of abundance for geographically large colonies, with low disturbance, and were generally consistent with concurrent ground-based observations. Concurrence among observers in photo counts indicated high precision in counts of attending birds and unattended nests, although species attribution in mixed tern colonies remains a source of significant uncertainty. Our results indicate that the four colonies surveyed here together supported <2,500 pairs of Aleutian Terns in the survey years. None of the colonies approached their peak size reported previously, likely due to recent predation, long-term decline, cold early season weather, or other factors. If these reduced colony sizes are representative of the current conditions, the implications for the global population would be dire.

The two species of Hylorchilus wrens are endemic to Mexico and were considered “Vulnerable” by Collar et al. (1994). They are restricted to humid tropical forest growing over karstic terrain, but large areas of apparently suitable habitat exist where they have not yet been recorded. I explored areas of potentially suitable habitat as well as a few localities where they were already known to occur in order to gather new data for a re-evaluation of the conservation status of these species. My records, together with six localities where these species have been reported by others in the past few years, add 15 localities to the 12 listed by Collar et al. (1992). Based on this and other new information, I recommend “Endangered” status for Nava's Wren, H. navai, based on criterion B of Mace-Lande (extent of occurence <5000 km2) and on the strongly fragmented state of its habitat. I would retain “Vulnerable” status for Sumichrast's Wren, H. sumichrasti, owing to its slightly larger range which is still relatively unfragmented and its apparently larger population density

To produce conservation indices from bird community data, with the aim of identifying and comparing areas of regional conservation concern, we selected bird community samples randomly over a large study area, without including habitat features a priori in the sampling procedure. Subsequently, we subjected the samples to a cluster analysis to identify a posteriori bird communities to be indexed together with their associated habitat and distribution/abundance on a regional scale. We identified 15 bird community types and were able to characterize each of them by a community conservation index (CCI) taking into account three different components of rarity: habitat selectivity, geographical distribution, and abundance. A cluster of four communities was associated with lowland farmland and woodland; another cluster of five was found at higher average altitudes and degree of urbanization; a third one of six showed a montane distribution. This third cluster showed much higher CCI values in comparison with the first two suggesting that the index here proposed is very sensitive to a high community selectivity and a restricted distribution/abundance.

The rare and threatened Long-wattled Umbrellabird Cephalopterus penduliger inhabits the canopy and mid-storey level of humid to wet foothill and montane forests (150–1,800 m)of the Andean slopes of south-west Colombia and western Ecuador. Here we report on male activity pattern and display behaviour observed at one of two leks recently discovered in the vicinity of Playa de Oro, Rio Santiago, Esmeraldas Province, north-west Ecuador. Courtship behaviour of C. penduliger is compared with the Central American and Amazonian congeners (Bare-necked Umbrellabird C. glabricollis and Amazonian Umbrellabird C. ornatus). The lek of C. penduliger was active during the whole study period (February 1997 to January 1998), but both lek structure and daytime activity pattern changed markedly within the observation period.

The Wood Snipe Gallinago nemoricola is one of the least known shorebird species, and its habitat associations are very poorly understood. Here we provide the first assessment of the habitat use of the Wood Snipe during the breeding season. Between May and July 2021 at a 4-km2 alpine meadow in Sichuan province, China, we conducted population surveys and behavioural observations to identify sites where breeding Wood Snipe occurred and foraged. We quantified the habitat characteristics and food resource availability of these sites and compared them with randomly selected “background” sites. Comparison between 34 occurrence sites and 25 background sites indicated that during the breeding season, Wood Snipes are not distributed evenly across alpine meadow habitats, but preferred habitats in the lower part (3,378–3,624 m) of the alpine meadow with intermediate levels of soil moisture. In addition, comparison between 17 foraging sites and 24 background sites showed that the Wood Snipe tended to forage at sites with higher soil fauna abundance. We found weak evidence for denser vegetation cover at its height and no evidence for other biotic habitat variables such as vegetation composition or other abiotic habitat variables such as slope, soil penetrability, or disturbance level to influence Wood Snipe habitat associations. Our results suggest that the actual distribution range of the Wood Snipe during the breeding season may be smaller than expected from the extent of apparently suitable habitat. We advise caution in evaluating the potential habitat availability and distribution of the Wood Snipe, and call for further research to better understand the ecology of this rare species to inform its conservation.

The ‘Critically Endangered’ Red-fronted Macaw is endemic to seasonally dry, rain-shadowed valleys in the south-central Andes of Bolivia. The remoteness and inaccessibility of most of this region have hampered the rigorous collection of reliable range-wide data on the species’ global, local and breeding population sizes. Such data are imperative, however, for effective conservation and management. Estimated to number up to 5,000 birds in the early 1980s, the most recent and thorough survey to date reported a total of only 807 macaws and a breeding population fraction of about 20% in 2011, disjunctly distributed across eight breeding and six foraging areas and divided into four genetic clusters. Ten years later, we reassessed the species’ population sizes and breeding distribution with increased survey effort and geographic coverage. Six teams simultaneously surveyed different sections of the species’ entire known breeding range in four watersheds focusing on nesting sites. We estimated a global population size of 1,160 macaws, a breeding population fraction of 23.8–27.4% (138–159 nesting pairs) and discovered four new breeding areas. Watersheds and breeding areas differed widely in nesting pair and total macaw numbers. The Mizque watershed held 53% of the species’ breeding and 41.5% of its global population and had the highest breeding population fraction of 30.7–34.9%; the Pilcomayo watershed obtained the lowest values (6%, 8.5% and 14.1–18.2%, respectively). Two of the four documented genetic clusters (subpopulations) each held well over 50 breeding individuals. Two of the eight breeding areas documented in 2011 were found unoccupied in 2021. Numbers of nesting pairs per breeding area in 2011 were poorly correlated with those in 2021, and timing of breeding activities also differed between years. Our new data indicate that the Red-fronted Macaw no longer meets IUCN Red List criteria for ‘Critically Endangered’ species and that it should be downlisted to ‘Endangered.’

Forest raptor nest-site selection is mostly influenced by the quality of the habitat, food resources, and competition. Here, we identified common targets of trees selected as breeding sites and differences in selection traits, i.e. prey availability and intra- and interspecific competition, among Booted Eagle, Long-legged Buzzard, Black Kite, and Common Kestrel in a Mediterranean Cork Oak forest (private protected reserve of 25 km2). Using generalised linear mixed models we developed species-specific models describing nesting habitat selection. We tested the overlap in nesting habitat selection among species using environmental principal component analysis. The densities of forest raptor breeding pairs were high (3.1 pairs/km2) and the distance between occupied territories was short, strongly connected with food availability and competition. The results showed that all the species, with the exception of Common Kestrel, selected for nesting areas characterised by higher conspecific distance, highlighting the importance of conspecific competition. Booted Eagle and Black Kite selected areas with a high abundance of rabbits. The height of the nesting tree, the size and distance between surrounding trees, and the scrub cover were significant habitat characteristics for Booted Eagle and Long-legged Buzzard. Indeed, the environmental analyses showed a moderate nest site overlap between Black Kite and both Booted Eagle and Long-legged Buzzard, and a high overlap between Common Kestrel and both Booted Eagle and Long-legged Buzzard. Our study improves knowledge of the habitat requirements for nest selection and the potential competitive interactions between these raptor species in Mediterranean forests, and highlights the need for implementation of habitat management and conservation strategies.

Twenty-eight predominantly tropical bird species have ranges that only just extend into the north-eastern part of South Africa, mainly within the Kruger National Park (KNP). These species are listed as “rare” (200 breeding pairs) in the South African Red Data Book (Brooke 1984). This study assesses the extent to which six of these rare bird species represent viable populations in the KNP. Grid squares in the KNP (2.5 × 2.5 miles) were visually assessed according to several bird habitat parameters. Bird records were also plotted on this grid system and habitat associations were identified for each species. This allowed for the measurement of total suitable habitat within the KNP for each species. Bird densities within known habitat were determined using spot-mapping and fixed-distance strip-transect techniques. Estimated population sizes for each species were obtained by extrapolating density estimates to total suitable habitat. Of the six study species, Arnot's Chat, Rudd's Apalis, Wattle-eyed Flycatcher and Tropical Boubou are likely to occur in sufficient numbers to constitute viable populations within the KNP, with estimated population sizes of 1,394, 4/758/ 2,070 and 10,450 birds respectively. The populations of White-crowned Plover and Long-tailed Starling are probably too small to be viable in the long term, with estimated population sizes of 305 and 382 birds respectively. The results presented here are testable and can be used as a baseline for future monitoring.

White-bellied Heron Ardea insignis (WBH) is critically endangered, but we lack data on many aspects of its basic ecology and threats to the species are not clearly understood. The goal of this study was to analyse WBH foraging microhabitat selection, foraging behaviour, and prey preferences in two river basins (Punatsangchhu and Mangdechhu) in Bhutan which are likely home to one of the largest remaining populations of WBH. We also explored the relationship between the relative abundance of the WBH and prey biomass catch per unit effort within four foraging river microhabitats (pool, pond, riffle and run). Prey species were sampled in 13 different 100-m thalweg lengths of the rivers using cast nets and electrofishing gear. Riffles and pools were the most commonly used microhabitats; relative abundance was the highest in riffles. The relative abundance of WBH and prey biomass catch per unit effort (CPUE) also showed a weak but significant positive correlation (rs = 0.22). The highest biomass CPUE was observed in riffles while the lowest was found in the ponds. From the 97 prey items caught by the WBH, 95% of the prey were fish. The WBH mainly exploited three genera of fish (Garra, Salmo, and Schizothorax) of which Schizothorax (64%) was the most frequently consumed. This study provides evidence in support of further protection of critical riverine habitat and fish resources for this heron. Regular monitoring of sand and gravel mining, curbing illegal fishing, habitat restoration/mitigation, and developing sustainable alternatives for local people should be urgently implemented by the government and other relevant agencies. Further study is also required for understanding the seasonal variation and abundance of its prey species in their prime habitats along the Punatsangchhu and Mangdechhu basins.

An updated and comprehensive compilation and review of the historical breeding sites of the Northern Bald Ibis in Syria and south-eastern Turkey is presented accompanied by all available details. The original sources, dating from the first half of the 19th century to 2010, were thoroughly assessed and reviewed. A detailed distribution map of confirmed and unconfirmed historical Northern Bald Ibis colonies was developed, showing a cluster of colonies located in the central steppe of Syria, between the villages of Qaryatayn and Sukhna, while several other colonies were scattered along the Euphrates river from southern Turkey to Iraq, passing through Syria.

Due to climate change and habitat conversion, estimates of the resulting levels of species extinction over the next century are alarming. Devising conservation solutions will require many different approaches, including examining the extinction processes of recently extinct species. Given that parrots are one of the most threatened groups of birds, information regarding parrot extinction is pressing. While most recent parrot extinctions have been island endemics, the Carolina Parakeet Conuropsis carolinensis had an 18th-century range covering nearly half of the present-day United States, yet mostly disappeared by the end of the 19th century. Despite a great deal of speculation, the major cause of its extinction remains unknown. Establishing the date when a species went extinct is one of the first steps in determining what caused their extinction. While there have been estimates of their extinction date, these analyses used a limited dataset and did not include observational data. We used a recently published, extensive dataset of Carolina Parakeet specimens and observations combined with a Bayesian extinction estimating model to determine the most likely extinction dates. By considering each of the two subspecies independently, we found that they went extinct ˜30 years apart: the western subspecies C. c. ludovicianus going extinct around 1914 and the eastern subspecies C. c. carolinensis either in the late 1930s or mid-1940s. Had we only considered all observations together, this pattern would have been obscured, possibly missing a major clue in solving the mystery of the parakeet’s extinction. Since the Carolina Parakeet was a wide-ranging species that went extinct during a period of rapid agricultural and industrial expansion, conditions that mirror those occurring in many parts of the world where parrot diversity is highest, any progress we make in unraveling the mystery of their disappearance may be vital to modern conservation efforts.

Cook’s Petrel Pterodroma cookii is an endemic New Zealand seabird that has experienced a large range decline since the arrival of humans and now only breeds on two offshore islands (Te Hauturu-o-Toi/Little Barrier Island and Whenua Hou/Codfish Island) at the extreme ends of its former distribution. Morphological, behavioural, and mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase 1 (CO1) sequence data led a previous study to recognise the two extant populations as distinct conservation management units. Here, we further examine the genetic relationship between the extant populations using two nuclear introns (β-fibint7 and PAX). Using one mitochondrial locus (CO1), we also investigate the past distribution of a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) that differentiates the modern populations using bone and museum skins sourced from within its former range across New Zealand’s North and South Islands. We found significant population genetic structure between the two extant Cook’s Petrel populations for one of the two nuclear introns (β-fibint7). The mitochondrial DNA CO1 analysis indicated that the SNP variant found in the Codfish Island population was formerly widely distributed across both the North and South Islands, whereas the Little Barrier Island variant was detected only in North Island samples. We argue that these combined data support the recognition of the extant populations as different subspecies. Previous names for these taxa exist, thus Cook’s Petrel from Little Barrier Island becomes Pterodroma cookii cookii and Cook’s Petrel from Codfish Island becomes P. c. orientalis. Furthermore, we suggest that both genetic and non-genetic data should be taken into consideration when planning future mainland translocations. Namely, any translocations on the South Island should be sourced from Codfish Island and future translocations on the North Island should continue to be sourced from Little Barrier Island only.