As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Sunday 16 September 2012

Big Conservation Benefits a Little Bird

Photo: Wikipedia

Bicknell's thrush (scientific name, Catharus bicknelli) is one of the rarest birds to inhabit the high elevation forests of the Adirondacks (it also lives in selected other parts of the northeastern United States and southern Canada). Scientists estimate the entire population to be fewer than 100,000; 95 percent of which spends the winter on the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola. These birds face pressures, primarily from deforestation, at both ends of their range and the population has been in decline.

Called Bicknell's thrush since 1881, and for more than a century considered a sub-species of the gray-cheeked thrush, this songbird was recognized as a separate species in 1995. Quickly thereafter, it gained another, albeit less desirable, distinction: one of the most at-risk species in the region due to threats such as deforestation and climate change.

Now, in 2012, it is being considered for endangered species status by the federal government.

Continued:
 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelle-brown/bicknells-thrush_b_1877367.html


More Bicknell's thrush information: 

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