10 most wanted bird species that little is known about

In May 2021, scientists managed to find a rare owl,which has not caught the eye of people for 125 years in a row. We are talking about the Raji owls, which were discovered on the island of Borneo in 1892. For a long time, they were considered extinct, but ornithologists were wrong - one of the individuals caught the eye of the researcher Keegan Tranquillo in the forests of Mount Kinabalu. There are actually a lot of birds that have been hiding from people for hundreds of years. For many years, conservationists from the Re: wild organization have been looking for them, who are always happy to receive help from outside. They recently published a list of the 10 most wanted birds and asked scientists, conservationists, and simply bird lovers for help in finding them. If someone manages to meet a rare bird, he can make a great contribution to science.

The photo is probably a Cuban kite, which was last seen in 2010.

It is important to note: I really wanted to share photos of all the wanted species, but due to the rarity of birds, many of them are simply not there. And those that exist are scattered throughout the article.

Search for rare animals

In 2017, the Re:wild launched the Search for Lost Species program, which searches for the 25 most wanted plant and animal species. Since the publication of this list, scientists have managed to find eight species of animals considered extinct. The list includes only a couple of birds, while more than 2,000 species are considered missing - this figure, at least, shared the director of Red-Wild Barney Long (Barney Long).

Forest crab (Afrithelphusa leonensis) is one of the newly discovered species of animals.

Since there are a lot of missing birds, recently there wereit was decided to allocate a separate program for them. Together with American Bird Conservancy and BirdLife International, the organization has published a list of the 10 most wanted birds in the world. These creatures must inhabit every existing continent except Antarctica. They belong to a variety of groups, ranging from tiny hummingbirds to carnivorous giants. The list includes only the most secretive species that have not been seen in the period from 10 to 150 years.

The rarest bird species

To make it easier for people to look for representatives of rare species, the authors of the list mentioned where and when they were last seen.

Gerdon's runner as seen by the artist

The list of the rarest birds in the world looks like this:

• the gloomy bulbul (dusky tetraka), last seen in 1999 on the island of Madagascar;
• the South Island kokako bird, last seen in 2007 in New Zealand;
• Jerdon's courser, last seen in 2009 in India;
• Prigogine's nightjar, last seen in 1955 in the Republic of Congo;
• Cuban kite, last seen in Cuba in 2010;
• Negros fruit-dove, last seen 195 in the Philippines;
• saberwing (Santa Marta sabrewing), last seen in 2010 in Colombia;
• bird Vilcabamba (Vilcabamba brush-finch), was last seen in 1968 in Peru;
• Himalayan partridge (Himalayan quail), last seen in India in 1877;
• Siau Island owl (Siau scops-owl), last seen in Indonesia in 1866.

Cocako bird model from the South Island in the collection of the Auckland Museum

See also: Collisions with skyscrapers kill billions of birds. How can white noise save them?

Expeditions to find rare birds

Two expeditions are planned for 2022to search for rare birds. As part of the first, researchers will look for a gloomy bulbul in Madagascar - it was last seen 22 years ago. During the second expedition, scientists will fly to Indonesia to find an owl they met 155 years ago from the island of Siau. Perhaps the members of the expedition will be successful, because over the past few years they have received several reports that people have heard sounds described as similar to the cries of these birds. Perhaps people have not yet met these creatures because of their small size and good disguise.

One of the stories will take place on the island of Madagascar

But it cannot be ruled out that these birds coulddie out completely. After all, people massively cut down forests, which are their natural habitat. Also, do not forget about the consequences of global warming - changes in environmental conditions can damage their health, as well as cause hunger due to the extinction of insects that they feed on.

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A couple of years ago, scientists noticed that the number of birds in North America and Canada has noticeably decreased. If you want to know the reason for the decline in their population, read this material.