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.

Saturday 23 August 2014

Earth houses 462 more species of bird than previously thought

There are 462 more species of bird in the world than previously thought after the most comprehensive avian analysis ever undertaken identified 46 new species of parrot, 26 extra owls and a host of other new entrants to the record books.

The study of the world’s 4,087 known species of non-songbirds discovered that there are in fact 4,549 of them, after the research group Birdlife International changed the way it analysed the birds to a more consistent approach.

As a result, hundreds of birds that had been regarded as sub-species – essentially two or more different "races" of the same species – were in fact different enough to be considered separate species in their own right.

Conservationists welcomed the increase in bird species but cautioned that by splitting up often small populations more had also become endangered.

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