Manipur: Critically endangered bird sighted for the 1st time in 92 years!

by TNT BUREAU - 1 week ago in

IMPHAL, Dec 9, 2018

A critically endangered migratory bird – the yellow-breasted bunting (Emberiza aureola) that feeds on grains – was sighted for the first time after 92 years in Manipur last month, RK Birjit Singh, the wildlife warden of Bishnupur district, said.

The same was reported by Sobhapati Samom in an article in The Assam Tribune. The bird was last sighted here last in 1926, as per British ornithologist Stuart Baker’s records. The bird locally known as Lam-Sendrang (local meaning wild sparrow) was sighted at the proposed area of Thinungei Bird Sanctuary in Bishnupur district on November 28 last, Singh told The Assam Tribune.

There were reports of sighting the species at Thongjaorok river that flows into the Loktak lake, in the first week of November last year but there was no photographic record, said Singh, who is also the State coordinator of the Indian Bird Conservation Network.

The size of a common sparrow, the yellow-breasted bunting breeds in north-eastern Europe and across northern Asia. It spends the winter in large flocks in wetlands or tall grasslands, preferring to roost near streams that irrigate rice-fields with tall grasses in south-east Asia, India and southern China.

Continued  

China to add yellow-breasted bunting to endangered list

By Liu Caiyu

Source:Global Times Published: 2017/12/7 20:53:40

China will add yellow-breasted bunting to its the wild animal protection list "soon," an official said Thursday after media reported plummeting numbers in the last decade.

China is mulling including emberiza aureola, commonly known as the yellow-breasted bunting, for a revised list including a higher degree of endangerment, a department official told the Global Times.

The government official, who insisted on anonymity including the relevant department, did not say when the revised list will be released.

The response came as media reported that non-government organization the International Union for Conservation of Nature upgraded the species to "critically endangered."

"The overall rate of population decline is even greater than previously thought and may have become extremely rapid during the past three generations (11 years)," the union posted on its website. 

Continued  

Yellow-breasted Bunting at risk of extinction

17/10/2017

  

BirdLife International is pushing an action plan to save the Endangered Yellow-breasted Bunting, after unchecked hunting has pushed it to the verge of extinction in the space of just three decades.

In the mid-1990s, the observed decline of Yellow-breasted Bunting in Hokkaido, Japan, alerted conservationists that this superabundant species might be in trouble. It has suffered a huge decline, possibly as much as 95 per cent of its population, in the span of just two to three decades. Prior to 2004, this attractive seed-eater was not regarded as of conservation concern, but since 2013 it has been listed as Endangered and this year the discussion on BirdLife’s Globally Threatened Birds Forum concerned a potential further uplisting to Critically Endangered.

The species migrates in huge flocks which are hunted in massive numbers, and its plight has been worsened by improvements in communication and transportation. The species gathers in large numbers at night to roost, making the birds easy to trap in high numbers. It is known as ‘Rice Bird’ in China, where it is hunted for food; this practice has been illegal since 1997 but continues on the black market to this day. 

Read more 

Once-abundant 'rice bird' is being eaten to worldwide extinction by China

Beijing (AFP) - A bird that was once one of the most abundant in Europe and Asia is being hunted to near extinction because of Chinese eating habits, according to a study published on Tuesday.

The population of the yellow-breasted bunting has plunged by 90 percent since 1980, all but disappearing from eastern Europe, Japan and large parts of Russia, said the study, published in the Conservation Biology journal.

Following initial population declines, China in 1997 banned the hunting of the species, known in the country as the "rice bird".

However, millions of these birds, along with other songbirds, were still being killed for food and sold on the black market as late as 2013, said the study.

It said consumption of these birds has increased as a result of economic growth and prosperity in East Asia, with an estimate in 2001 claiming one million buntings were consumed in China's southern Guangdong province alone.

Read more:

Yellow-breasted bunting 'endangered' as Guangdong diners refuse to stop eating it

It's a delicacy sold for a few dozen yuan amid hushed tones in certain markets and restaurants in Guangdong province. Sellers turn away customers who do not speak the local dialect - anyone caught can be fined as much as 100,000 yuan (HK$126,400).

Despite the threat of penalties, the market for yellow-breasted bunting, a migratory bird that flies from Europe to China for the winter, thrives on the mainland. Conservationists say poaching to supply the demand is a leading cause of the sharp decline in the protected species' numbers over the past decade.

The bird was today listed as endangered by the main global body that categorises the survival status of the planet's species, the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The union has two higher categories - critical and extinct in the wild - before a species is deemed extinct.

Continued