Top 12 Birds which Recently Extinct

Top 12 Birds which Recently Extinct

The music of nature is going to zero. Perhaps the worst thing about extinction as perceived by the majority is that it treats extinction as a phenomenon of the past, when, in fact, it is with us now and growing. The loss of one species will echo through an ecosystem, a silent cue about the increasing human dominance over any given environment. Today we remember and take our attention to the plight of twelve incredible species of birds who died, never to fly in the skies again...at least not in the last two hundred years plus. However, when we learn about these bird extinctions today, we don't cry, we become horrified and decide that we must take action. 

Ivory-Billed Woodpecker

The most recognizable extinct  of  North American bird species. The Ivory was the mascot of the untamed old growth forests of the South East United States. Officially extirpated (extinct in the wild) in 1944 but more or less extirpated by the mid 1800s due to widespread forest destruction for timber harvesting in these vast swathes of bush. It was sometimes seen here and there, but then in 2021 the US Fish and Wildlife service concluded that it was extirpated.

Spix Macaw

This Blue Spix Macaw was used for devastating effects of the pet trade and whenever trade gets end the the entire species had to go extinct. Uncommon, endemic to Brazil, it has been driven to extinction by habitat destruction combined with continued random trematode trapping to supply the illegal cage bird market. It was declared extinct in the wild back in 2019, but there's a small chance that it may eventually be feasible to introduce the species back into the wild, through a captive breeding initiative, at some point in the future.

Labrador Duck

This was an uncommon black and white sea duck that didn't abound, but which nevertheless plummeted in number in only a few years (disappearing in 1878). A combination of excessive hunting of its meat and feathers, as well as declining supply of its preferred food source mollusks spurred one of the first modern bird extinctions to occur in North America, scientists now suspect.

Passenger Pigeon

Probably the most appalling example in conservation history is that of the Passenger Pigeon. Having flocks numbering perhaps in the billions, that could partly shade the sky for several days, they were downed industrialized style. They shared the living landscape with humans, but after a few generations of dedicated market hunting and the gradual expansion of human settlements, their numbers had collapsed to zero, from once great billions. last Pelican Martha died 1914 while in captivity.

Kauai

The plaintive third or flutelike tone of the Kauai 0003 outgoing call was to replicate the sound of the Hawaiian rain forest. This honeyeater fell victim to one of the more common trends in extinctions of island birds, introduced diseases, in this case avian malaria carried by imported mosquitoes, and the fragmentation of habitat. As recently as 1987, a song of one of these lone males in search of a mate was heard.

Kauai Nukupuu

This strange looking bird with its long abnormal bill was well adapted for probing in the bark of the trees for insects; it was a Kauai native. It seems that it was a combination of the effects of deforestation and other pig related environmental changes to the ecology of Southern Europe and disease that caused the break up of their population. The same reaction was seen in the late 1990s.

Poouli

Meaning black faced in Hawaiian, the Po ouli was a highly endangered species that was as recently discovered as it was too late in 1973. When first discovered, there were only 140 of them left and over the years they have fought to survive because of habitat loss and predation from the introduced rats and cats and disease they have brought. One last effort to raise the creature through excessive breeding in captivity resulted in the death of the last animal in 2004.

Laughing Owl

Ground nesting and having an extremely loud call that sounded like crazed laughter, the roundheaded owl was endemic in New Zealand. And then the owls became overrun with European stoats introduced to control the rabbit population, who accommodated cats. This was proven last in 1914.

Paradise Parrot

The coloured and autralian native parrot was the first Australian flightless bird to be declared extinct in 1928. Its demise has resulted in part from the side effects of trapping, but also from changes to fire regimes wrought by indigenous people and, in many cases, overgrazing by cattle and sheep.

Dodo 

Any list of recently extinct birds would be incomplete without this most notorious example of human induced extinction. This oversized, flightless pigeon had no predators on Mauritius until the end of the 16th century when sailors began invading the island. They are hunted for their meat and had gone extinct by 1662 due to the imported pigs, dogs and monkeys destroying their nests.

Hawaiian Crow

AlalA is a very intelligent animal that is technically extinct in nature. The remaining wild individuals went extinct by 2002, from habitat destruction, disease and predation. While the attempts to implement this plan have been in the best interests of the endangered species, there is still some hope that with aggressive conservation efforts, the population that has been cloned in captivity may still be viable, and the species could be reintroduced.

Bachman Warble

This is very small little yellow songbird who bred from southeast US and wintered in Cuba. It was said to be extinct, as declared last year, due to the massive destruction of its habitat, the swamps, in both countries. It certainly has been monitored since the 1960s.

A call to Conserve

The sad picture of extinction shown above is consistent and also shows, the birds' greatest losses resulting from habitat destruction, invasive species, overexploitation and disease. Of course we can learn those things, but it hardly makes us happy to read this stuff. They remind us to be humble about the fact that we're living; they remind us to take our responsibility seriously.

These twelve extinct birds should serve as an impelling force toward change in the memory. By protecting habitat, investing in better environmental policies, and making individual sustainable choices, we can make sure that wild bird song doesn't die out among at least some of the species that will survive. Now it falls to us to figure out what we want to do with their legacy.