Is This the Year the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow Goes Extinct?

With just a few dozen left in the wild, things don’t look good for these critically endangered birds. But a captive-breeding program could help save them.

Extinction Countdown

January 31, 2018 - by John R. Platt

Mary Peterson, USFWS

This year the United States could experience its first bird extinction in more than three decades.

That’s the warning from the scientists and conservationists working to protect the critically endangered Florida grasshopper sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum floridanus). Once common in the grasslands of central Florida, this geographically isolated subspecies has experienced a catastrophic population decline since the 1970s, mostly due to habitat loss and degradation. Although the tiny birds have been protected by the Endangered Species Act since 1986, their numbers have continued to fall — to the point where recovery now seems next to impossible. A survey last year found that just 22 females and 53 males remained in the wild — and that was before 2017’s hurricane season and record-setting winter cold snaps.

“Extinctions really happen,” warns Paul Reillo, zoologist and president of the Rare Species Conservatory Foundation in Loxahatchee, Fla. “This is going to be North America’s next extinct bird if we do nothing.”

Continued  

Extinction looms for two rare bird species after devastating hurricanes

Posted by JoAnn Adkins × 10/24/2017 at 2:05 pm

Conservationists race to save remaining populations

Conservation biologist Paul Reillo is torn between two worlds in the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria — one of swift action and one of waiting.

There is little time to rest. More than 200 animals, many fighting extinction, are relying on him. The FIU scientist is the founder of the Rare Species Conservatory Foundation (RSCF), a partner in FIU’s Tropical Conservation Institute (TCI), which offers safe haven, captive breeding programs and field-based conservation to help save endangered species. In a matter of two weeks, two species of birds on the brink of extinction were dealt devastating blows when Hurricanes Irma and Maria crossed the Caribbean, leaving devastation in their wakes. The team at the Tropical Conservation Institute knows it is facing an unprecedented conservation crisis.

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Conservation funds to help endangered Highlands County species

Pallavi Agarwal | Highlands Today

Published: January 19, 2015

SEBRING — Ecologists consider it one of the most endangered birds in North America.

Mostly black and gray with speckles of brown on the nape and the back, the Florida grasshopper sparrow, which calls Central Florida home, is heard more than it is seen.

Archbold Biological Station’s Reed Bowman, who has been studying these reclusive subspecies of the grasshopper sparrows on public land such as the Avon Park Bombing Range, estimates there are 200 of them left.

The secretive bird, which is 5 inches long, runs more than it flies, he explained.

In spring, the males peek out of the scrub and grassland of Central Florida’s dry prairie to sing on top of vegetation and claim their territory. That’s when ecologists try to count them. The females stay under the radar and remain there, eluding the human eye.

The bird’s population has been under assault as its natural habitat has been lost to urban development, but more perplexing is how the best management practices ecologists have put in place the last 10 years to conserve the bird have not stopped its decline, Bowman said.

Surveys in 2004 found seven occupied locations, with a total estimated 1,000 birds. Surveys in 2012 indicated the lowest number of males ever seen on public land: 75 singing males on three properties -- the bombing range, the Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park, and Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area.

In April, they counted one singing male on the Avon Park Bombing Range.

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Feds won't try captive breeding of grasshopper sparrow for now

Federal authorities have backed away for now from capturing and trying to breed the Florida grasshopper sparrow, thought to be the most endangered bird in North America.

The decision comes after disagreement between prominent biologists who have urged captive breeding of the sparrow and state officials who opposed it. The 5-inch-long birds live exclusively in Central Florida, primarily in Osceola County.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-07-22/news/os-sparrow-drama-extinction-risk-20130720_1_captive-breeding-grasshopper-sparrow-rare-species-conservatory-foundation

Florida Biologists Initiate Captive Breeding for Endangered Grasshopper Sparrow Species

Apr 19, 2013 04:41 PM EDT | Michael Briggs

Biologists are initiating a captive breeding program for the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow, an endangered species that is not found anywhere else in the world. 

According the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the species could go extinct in three to five years if officials do not step in to save it. The group announced the captive breeding program Thursday and while it is not the preferred solution, the 20 eggs collected will hopefully give the birds a chance. 

"Captive breeding is labor intensive and challenging. It is generally done as a last resort and there are no guarantees. But we have to try," Larry Williams, the head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Vero Beach. "This is an emergency and the situation for this species is dire. This is literally a race against time." 

According to The San Francisco Chronicle, there are only 200 Florida Grasshopper Sparrows left in the wild. The Dusky Seaside Sparrow, the Grasshopper Sparrow's cousin, went extinct 1987 under similar circumstances. 

The eggs should hatch within 11 to 13 days, and the end goal is to release the birds into the wild in two to three years, according to biologists. 

"We know it's going to be hard," Williams said. "They're small birds living in dense vegetation and they're secretive by nature." 

The program will cost $68,000 and be covered by grants. Florida Grasshopper Sparrows are about 5 inches long and have flat heads with short tails and black and gray feathers. The birds were added to the federal endangered species list in 1986. 

A cocktail of problems have added to the decline of the sparrows. Williams believes a gender imbalance is a possible reason for the bird's decline, along with fire ants, which eat their eggs. Disease and a hit to the species' genetic diversity could also be to blame. 

"We're trying to prevent a unique part of Florida's landscape from vanishing," Williams said. 

(Source: Tampa Bay Times) 

http://www.designntrend.com/articles/3902/20130419/florida-biologists-captive-breeding-endangered-grasshopper-sparrow-species.htm

THE MOST ENDANGERED BIRD IN THE CONTINENTAL U.S.

THE FIGHT TO SAVE THE FLORIDA GRASSHOPPER SPARROW INSPIRES ALL WHO LOVE WILDLIFE. 

BY TED WILLIAMS

Published: March-April 2013

Predawn, April 8, 2012: Cold and stiff, I crawl out of my tent in Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park—a wilderness island in the sea of asphalt, cement, and drained agricultural land that is south-central Florida. The International Space Station, brighter than the morning star, sweeps across the Milky Way. And far to the west a ragged line of cabbage palms and live oaks is backlit by the nearly full moon. The birds we’re after sing in the early morning, so we need to get moving.

Three hours later, what birders who aren’t fast enough with their field glasses would call an LBJ (little brown job) is in my right hand. Instructed by biologists Paul Miller of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Sandra Sneckenberger of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, I have him in the “photographer’s grip”—his legs between my middle finger and pointer, my thumb against his bent knees. His tail is short, his breast buff, his back dark gray and streaked with brown. There’s a splash of yellow at the wing joint, ochre stripes over his eyes. From a distance he hadn’t looked like much. Now I can see that he’s gorgeous.

http://www.audubonmagazine.org/articles/conservation/most-endangered-bird-continental-us