Emily Chan
In the wild, nearly 12,000 species of birds exist. Humans see them every day, but there are a handful that haven’t been recorded in a year or even in over a century.
Scientists have updated the list of “lost” birds and are urging the public to keep a lookout for the rare avians.
Over the last 130,000 years, humans have caused a total of 1,430 bird species to go extinct. The “lost” birds on the list are not necessarily extinct—they just haven’t been spotted in at least a decade.
Researchers compiled a full list by analyzing more than 42 million photographs, videos, and sound recordings taken by bird watchers and uploaded to citizen science platforms.
In addition, they examined museum collections, media from search engines, and scientific papers and consulted with local experts.
An analysis that was conducted two years ago described 144 bird species that had not been documented in more than a decade.
However, according to the American Bird Conservancy, recent sightings and some classification technicalities have brought the number down to 126 lost birds.
The 126 lost birds make up roughly one percent of the known 11,849 bird species. Several of them are endangered or critically endangered, so finding them is important in order to prevent them from disappearing forever.
“Through more exposure in global ornithological and birding networks, there’s great potential to learn more about birds that are poorly known and highly threatened,” said study co-author Cameron Rutt, an ornithologist from Louisiana State University and the former lost birds coordinator for the American Bird Conservancy.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
