DoC concerned 'mega mast' could wipe out native bird populations in some areas

29/10/2019

Alastair Lynn

Native bird populations could be completely wiped out in some areas hit by this year's mega mast.

It's set to be the biggest seeding event in more than 40 years, but half-a-million hectares of forest will receive no 1080 predator control.

"There's a huge number of rats, and there will be a huge number of stoats in our forests this year," says Peter Morton, of the Department of Conservation (DoC). 

The threat to birdlife this summer is so much higher because climate change is making our native bush go through an explosion of seeding. That causes a chain reaction - the more seeds the more birds, the more birds the more rodents.

"We'll lose some of our most precious treasures in those forests," says Forest and Bird ecologist Rebecca Stirnemann.

One example is a whio nest Newshub saw. The eggs laid by a little blue duck were no match for a stoat, which stole three eggs of the endangered species in the space of 10 minutes.

With heavy seed fall expected, Fiordland all the way up to the East Cape will be hit the hardest. 

But areas like Nelson Lakes National Park, the Tararua Ranges and the Tongariro Forest won't get any DoC-funded predator control.

In those regions populations of whio, kokako and kiwi could be wiped from the map.

"In years without 1080 we lost 90 percent of all our kiwi chicks, they were just decapitated by stoats, killed," says Stirnemann.

By closely watching the forests DoC has been able to estimate that the number of predators will be near saturation point.So much so that they're expecting to see rodents in some tunnels 96 percent of the time.

The Department of Conservation believes around 1.4 million hectares of native forest is at risk of being swamped by predators this mega mast season, however, just 900,000 hectares will be covered by the current 1080 drop, leaving half-a-million hectares of native bush still at risk.

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Corncrakes as a Scottish breeding species 'under threat'

Numbers of one of Scotland's rarest birds remain "alarmingly low", conservationists have said.

Corncrakes migrate from Africa to breed on islands including Tiree, Lewis, Harris, Orkney and parts of Argyll and the north west Highlands.

The birds are counted by listening for the call of males.

RSPB Scotland said 870 males were recorded this summer in the core breeding areas. The figure was down from 897 in 2018.

In the last five years since 2014, when a high of 1,282 calling males were recorded, Scotland's corncrake population has decreased by more than 30%.

In recent years crofters have been encouraged to take measures to boost corncrake numbers.

European funding to support such initiatives was administered through the Scottish Rural Development Programme.

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Birds could make a Swift exit

July 12, 2019

By Maurice Garvey

A BIRD enthusiast has warned of a Swift exit in Clondalkin Village, should proposed plans for a 155-bed nursing home at Presentation Convent go ahead.

A colony of Swifts are located in the cloisters of the convent building, a site earmarked for development, pending an appeal to An Bord Pleanála by residents.

One of the fastest flying birds in Ireland, Swifts spend virtually all their life airborne, only nesting to breed, but they will be wiped out unless precautions are put in place to protect their colony, according to Daithí De Brún, founder of Swift Conservation Clondalkin and a member of Birdwatch Ireland.

“South Dublin County Council have shown zero to no interest in preserving the Swift population,” said De Brún, who attributes their decline to the loss or renovation of the many 1970/80s style buildings they use for breeding.

He says the colony are the only remaining Swifts in Clondalkin.

However, SDCC say they have identified an active colony in “one of the council’s properties in the Clondalkin area.”

The Swift population in Ireland has declined by over 40 per cent in the last 15 years, and they are on the amber list of birds of conservation concern.

De Brún continued: “Dublin City Council, Kildare, Dún-Laoghaire-Rathdown, Belfast, are all conscious of breeding sites, and have built nest boxes, but Swifts are just not on the agenda for SDCC. They talk about bio-diversity, but only started to do something on their 2015-2020 bio-diversity plan last year.”

De Brún has monitored the Clondalkin colony for ten years, and says the numbers have decreased from 20 to seven in that time.

He made a submission during the planning process for the nursing home, citing “great concerns” for their future, as they are “faithful to their nest sites.”

On Monday, De Brún gave a Clondalkin Tidy Towns talk to residents at the convent grounds, pointing out the distinctive scythe shaped wings of Swifts, who he says, sleep and eat on the wing and travel as far away as southern Africa and the China Royal Palace.

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Shorebird haven threatened by tourist resort

04/03/2019

Peleliu Lkes, a coastal wetland on the Pacific island of Palau, is threatened by the development of a nearby tourist resort. The site is an intertidal zone of pristine sand flats and islets and is a sanctuary for migrating shorebirds, including Far Eastern Curlew, serving as a stopover for birds travelling from Arctic and subarctic breeding grounds to coastal sites in Australia and New Zealand. 

However, an islet adjacent to the Lkes has been leased to a foreign developer for $300,000 with the intention of developing it into a tourist resort. Needless to say, any resort-based operations on the islet will encroach into the reef and likely severely degrade the important habitat. Furthermore, levels of disturbance will be raised.

Several Endangered species, including Micronesian Megapode, Far Eastern Curlew and Great Knot rely on Peleliu Lkes. Favourable tidal conditions present ample feeding opportunities for resident and migratory species alike. Unsurprisingly, BirdLife has added the site to their inventory of global Important Bird & Biodiversity Areas (IBAs).

BirdLife's partner on the island – Palau Conservation Society (PCS) – has been working to preserve the area and faces a fresh challenge in light of the recent leasing. Stressing the vital role Peleliu Lkes plays for both the local community and birds, PCS are lobbying to convince islanders and politicians that the area needs immediate protection. Hopefully, both local and global pressure will lead to the site being included on the national network of protected areas.

Source

Brexit Could Threaten Penguins in the Falkland Islands

by: Judy M.

January 2, 2019

Questions are swirling about what will happen with the UK’s Brexit, now that Prime Minister Theresa May has postponed a crucial vote until January.

If May’s deal is voted down, which is the most likely outcome, no one is sure what will happen: She could switch to Plan B within 21 days, call a snap election, resign, be dumped by her Conservative party or participate in a second referendum.

According to Dr. Simon Usherwood, a reader in politics at the University of Surrey, if there’s no deal:

On 29 March next year, the UK would leave the EU and everything associated with that would come to an end. [A no deal] doesn’t stop the UK leaving but it means there is absolutely no clarity about what happens.”

Brits are fraught with worry about the uncertainty surrounding work and life in Britain. But is anyone worrying about the penguins?

Most people aren’t aware that the UK is responsible for more penguins than any other country, and wildlife protection groups are concerned about what will happen to them, as well as other bird species, after EU money runs out in 2020. There has been no commitment from DEFRA, the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, that it will replace the EU cash after 2020.

Politico reports:

It is a little-known fact that the U.K. is responsible for more penguins than any country on earth. The downside of that — for the penguins of Britain’s overseas territories, not to mention a host of other species — is that they too are affected by Brexit.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and Falklands Conservation are both concerned the EU conservation program will not be replaced. In particular they worry that without grants from LIFE (Financial Instrument for the Environment) and BEST (Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Territories overseas), world-leading conservation efforts for rare and unique species will be put under threat.

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Adani 'conservation area' for endangered finch sits on proposed Clive Palmer mine

Exclusive: environmental group calls plan to protect black-throated finch an ‘elaborate hoax’

Ben Smee

Sat 29 Dec 2018 19.00 GMTLast modified on Sun 30 Dec 2018 11.43 GMT

Adani has set aside a “conservation area” for the endangered black-throated finch at the same site earmarked for the massive Clive Palmer-backed Alpha North coalmine.

The environmental group Lock the Gate said the land-use conflict meant the Adani plan to protect the black-throated finch – which is one of two crucial management plans for the Carmichael mine yet to be approved by the Queensland government – amounted to an “elaborate hoax”.

But Adani’s response suggested the Indian company could seek to block elements of the neighbouring Alpha North coalmine, or prompt a court battle, to safeguard its own project.

“We will not allow the conservation area for the black-throated finch to be compromised,” Adani said in a statement to Guardian Australia.

Adani owns the relevant pastoral land – effectively the property at surface level. Palmer’s Waratah Coal has several exploration permits for the coal resource underneath, and has applied for a mining lease.

The Waratah Coal plan for Alpha North includes a series of open-cut and underground mines, planned to produce 80m tonnes of coal a year from two separate areas. A 20,000ha section Adani plans to use for a conservation area roughly corresponds to Alpha North plans for four longwall underground mines.

In applications, Waratah Coal has acknowledged that Alpha North could cause subsidence, and could affect black-throated finch habitat and watercourses.

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Kent nightingale habitat gets a welcome reprieve

Developers scale back housing building plans at Britain's best site for nightingales.

By Sheena Harvey

December 22, 2018 at 8:30 am

The threat to important habitat for the UK’s dwindling population of nightingales has receded somewhat with the decision by Homes England to scale back its plans for the Lodge Hill site in Kent from 2,000 houses to 500.

Aside from reducing the numbers of houses, Homes England also said that it is now only intends building outside the boundary of the protected area.

The long-running effort to save Lodge Hill, Britain’s best site for nightingales and a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) has been going on since 2014, when it was announced that 5,000 houses were to be built.

Three rounds of public campaigning took place in 2014, 2017 and 2018, led by the RSPB and Kent Wildlife Trust in partnership with several other organisations.

Lodge Hill holds up to 85 singing nightingales, out of a national population of only 5,500 in a 2012 British Trust for Ornithology survey.

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Tanzania's largest reserve under threat

27/08/2018

Tanzania's Selous Game Reserve, one of the last areas of untouched wilderness in the world, could face permanent damage should construction of a proposed hydroelectric dam go ahead. This important World Heritage Site contains multiple ecosystems that support a myriad of animal species, including Malagasy Pond Heron, as well as Lions and African Elephants.

In late April, the Tanzanian government confirmed plans to clear an expansive swathe of vegetation inside Selous, with a hydropower dam expected to be created. However, this decision is in breach of Tanzanian environmental legislation, and also goes against the World Heritage Committee position against dams with large reservoirs being built on World Heritage Sites.

Selous is an almost entirely undisturbed tract of wilderness roughly the size of Switzerland, and the largely untouched habitat hosts a long list of species typically associated with the savanna regions of Africa. The largest population of African Buffalo on the continent is found on the reserve, and it is an internationally important wintering site for Malagasy Pond Heron, which is listed as Endangered by BirdLife International. This species is highly threatened by a loss of habitat, and consequently the extensive wetlands of Selous is a key refuge.

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Only 12 breeding pairs of Australian rare bird left

Beach stone-curlews are under threat from feral foxes in New South Wales

Published: 14:06 August 15, 2018

Australasia region are under threat from feral foxes in New South Wales (NSW).

The aboriginal community in the coastal bushland has now taken up action to protect the rare birds by laying fox traps, Xinhua news agency reported.

Conserving the ground-nesting birds is important as there are only 12 breeding pairs left, said Banahm Slabb from the Tweed Byron Aboriginal Land Council.

The foxes were first introduced Down Under from Europe in the mid-1800s for sport hunting. Later they proliferated on minimal competition and have now started affecting native species.

Source 

Tuesday, August  28, 2018

                                                                                                                                                                          

With just 12 breeding pairs left, authorities move to protect rare Australian bird

Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-14 13:37:25|Editor: Shi Yinglun

SYDNEY, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The last 12 breeding pairs of the beach stone-curlew in Australia's New South Wales (NSW) are under threat from feral foxes, with the local community now taking action to protect the rare birds.

Local media reported on Tuesday that community groups have laid fox traps in an attempt to exterminate the introduced threat to local wildlife.

"We've got nice big areas of coastal bushland, which is habitat to lots of birds and animals, particularly ground-nesting birds such as the bush stone-curlew, also the beach stone-curlew," Tweed Shire Council's manager of natural resources Jane Lofthouse said.

"The beach stone-curlew is especially vulnerable because there are only, that we know of, 12 breeding pairs in the whole of NSW, so if we have one here on Fingal it is important we help them to breed."

Foxes were first introduced to Australia from Europe in the mid 1800's for the purpose of sport hunting, with a number of animals being deliberately released to establish a wild population.

Due to the Australian continent lack of equivalent native predators, the foxes proliferated on minimal competition for resources, and an abundant supply of prey unaccustomed to threat from apex predators.

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Ladakh’s revered bird is under threat from human’s best friend – dogs

by Athar Parvaiz on 22 August 2018

The black-necked crane, the state bird of Jammu and Kashmir, is under threat from feral dogs that damage the bird eggs and chicks.

Another threat to the bird is the loss of habitat owing to the loss and degradation of wetlands and changing agricultural practices in both its breeding and wintering grounds.

Dog attacks on wildlife are a threat to species survival in India and researchers suggest responsible dog ownership, control of free-ranging behaviour to reduce interactions with wildlife and dog population management based on scientific research and techniques.

The dance of Chartses, a mating jig of the black-necked crane, is an important feature of every cultural programme or festival in Ladakh where the bird is revered among the people. Ladakhis, particularly those living in Changthang region, consider the black-necked crane not only culturally important, but a spiritual creature as well. Many monasteries have paintings of the crane along with other spiritual paintings.

They believe that sighting the giant bird is a sign of good luck.

But the beautiful creature, also the state bird of the mountainous Jammu & Kashmir, is under severe threat from humankind’s trusted friends – dogs. In Ladakh Himalayas the major threat to the successful breeding of black-necked crane is the damage caused to the eggs and chicks of the bird by feral dogs, according to World Wildlife Fund (WWF) India who claimed that “these dogs are owned both by armed forces as well as by the local nomads.”

Another threat to the bird is the loss of habitat. According to IUCN, the black-necked crane is classified as vulnerable because it has a single small population that is declining owing to the loss and degradation of wetlands and changing agricultural practices in both its breeding and wintering grounds.

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Proposed road construction threatens Ecuadorian rainforest

12/04/2018

Wildlife conservation charity World Land Trust (WLT) is urgently raising funds to protect tropical forest in the Amazonian Andes of Ecuador, where hundreds of species are threatened by plans to build a road through virgin forest.

The Amazonian Andes is one of the richest habitats on Earth, where the wildlife of the Amazon basin meets the montane species of the Andes Mountain Range. However, only an estimated 25 per cent of the natural habitat in the tropical Andes remains intact.

As agricultural practices intensify across the South American continent, resulting in the clearance of rainforests, the remaining patches of natural habitat are increasingly isolated from each other, and often only remain secure in parks or reserves under national protection. Maintaining the connections between these areas is vital for allowing species such as Harpy Eagle and Spectacled Bear to move between forest areas and for connecting populations of less widely ranging species such as amphibians. These connections are also increasingly important in the face of climate change, as intact natural corridors will allow species to move in response to changing weather patterns and habitats.

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Gwent Wildlife Trust says that rare cranes have returned to Gwent Levels - but proposed new M4 route could threaten their future

12th April

GWENT Wildlife Trust (GWT) says rare cranes have returned to the Gwent Levels to breed on the route of the proposed M4.

Common cranes died out across the UK 400 years ago, so their return to the Gwent Levels has been welcomed, but GWT warns another manmade threat is threatening their future - the proposed M4 motorway.

GWT have been contacted by a number of members who have sighted the cranes in the past week or so, on and around the Gwent Levels and their nature reserve at Barecroft Common, areas where the proposed new M4 route will be built over.

It is thought the cranes spotted come from The Great Crane Project, a reintroduction scheme which released 93 hand-reared cranes between 2010 and 2014 on the RSPB West Sedgemoor Reserve in Somerset.

Thanks to the success of the scheme for the past three years, a pair of cranes have flown from Somerset, to breed on the Gwent Levels during the spring.

GWT’s deputy chief executive Gemma Bodé said: “It is really exciting news that the cranes have chosen to return to the Gwent Levels to breed once again. The precious habitat we have here on the Levels is perfect for them as they need very quiet, secluded, wet areas to breed successfully.

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Bird biodiversity in Tamil Nadu under severe threat

By SV Krishna Chaitanya  |  Express News Service  |   Published: 09th March 2018 04:52 AM  |  

Last Updated: 09th March 2018 04:52 AM  |   A+A A-   |  

CHENNAI: Bird biodiversity in Tamil Nadu is under threat and 18 out of 39 Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) are unprotected, according to the latest report prepared by Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).Though the State has improved its tally of bird areas from 34 to 39, habitat destruction, agriculture intensification, industrialisation and urbanisation are eating into IBAs endangering at least 40 bird species.

As per the report titled “Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas in India: Priority Sites for Conservation”, an updated edition released after 14 years of work, four bird species have been categorised as critically endangered, of which three belong to Vulture family.

White-rumped Vulture, Long-billed Vulture, Red-headed Vulture and Spoon-billed Sandpiper have been reported to be critically endangered. There have been no confirmed sightings of Spoon-billed Sandpiper in Tamil Nadu for 20 years. This apart, six species are endangered, eight vulnerable and 22 nearly threatened.

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Land reclamation threatens extremely rare spoon-billed sandpipers in China

by Shreya Dasgupta on 14 December 2017

Every year, the critically endangered spoon-billed sandpiper makes a crucial three-month stopover at Tiaozini mudflats in Jiangsu province on China’s eastern coast.

The Jiangsu government, however, has already converted 67.5 square kilometers of Tiaozini’s coastal waters into land and plans to reclaim another 599.5 square kilometers of Tiaozini by 2020.

Conservationists say that virtually all spoon-billed sandpipers that currently use Tiaozini could disappear if the reclamation goes ahead as planned, pushing the species to extinction.

One of the world’s rarest birds — the tiny spoon-billed sandpiper — could soon lose a critical habitat to land reclamation projects, warns a new report by Greenpeace.

Every year, the reddish-brown spoon-billed sandpiper (Eurynorhynchus pygmeus) makes a 5,000-mile long journey, flying from its breeding grounds in Arctic Russia to its wintering sites in places like southern China, Bangladesh and Myanmar. On the way, the bird makes a crucial three-month stopover at Tiaozini mudflats in Jiangsu province on China’s eastern coast.

This is the single most important site for the species, Nigel Clark of the British Trust for Ornithology told Mongabay. The birds rely on the mudflats and wetlands not only for their annual moult — a period when they replace all their wing feathers — but also to refuel and to find refuge. The coastal site is also important for the birds during their journey back to the Russian breeding grounds. Moreover, Tiaozini is a critical habitat for other endangered birds like the Nordmann’s greenshank (Tringa guttifer) and the black-faced spoonbill (Platalea minor).

The Tiaozini mudflats, however, could soon be gone.

Read on  

Curlew crisis deepens: vital Australian wetlands under threat

The curlews are one of the most widespread and far-travelling of all the bird families — and also one of the most threatened. It seems that wherever they roam, habitat loss and human encroachment follows. We can’t let the Far Eastern Curlew go the same way as its fellows.

The Numeniini — a tribe of large waders including curlews and godwits — is one of the most threatened bird groups on the planet. The once-abundant Eskimo Curlew Numenius borealis of the Americas is now considered Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct), having last been spotted with certainty in the 1960s. But the plight of the Numeniini also extends over the Atlantic into the Old World. Here, the extensive drainage of wetlands across the Mediterranean and North Africa — important wintering grounds for many migratory birds across the African-Eurasian Flyway — has rendered another species, the Slender-billed Curlew Numenius tenuirostris, missing in action for almost a quarter of a century.

Like the Eskimo Curlew, the possibility of the extinction of the Slender-billed Curlew cannot be confirmed for sure until we have scoured the entirety of its known breeding grounds in the Siberian wilderness for a remnant population. And although it hasn’t been recorded with confidence across its wintering range since February 1995, it’s possible that a few remaining Slender-billed Curlews — gregarious birds by nature — are still making the long trip south as part of a flock of a more common species, such as Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata or Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus.

Attempts to track down a straggling Slender-billed Curlew population continue, with the RSPB (BirdLife in the UK) recently using environmental data, gleaned from tiny atoms harvested from museum specimens, to pinpoint a potential breeding ground in the Kazakh steppes. But with each year that passes, it becomes more likely that Europe has suffered its first avian extinction since the Great Auk Pinguinus impennis croaked its last in 1852.

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Antarctic Adélie penguin colony in jeopardy as Marine Protection Area is rejected

Sarah Knapton, science editor 

27 OCTOBER 2017 • 3:49PM

A huge colony of Adélie penguins in Antarctica is at risk after an international commission founded to preserve wildlife at the South Pole refused to establish a Marine Protection Area, despite pleas from conservationists. 

The 18,000 pairs of penguins in Terre Adélie suffered a catastrophic breeding failure at the start of 2017 with only two chicks surviving.

It was hoped that The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) - which is meeting in Australia - would impose greater maritime restrictions on fisheries.

Australia and the EU have been calling for a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in East Antarctic waters since 2010 but when put to a vote on Friday the proposal did not gain the necessary consensus to pass.

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One big plan to save African-Eurasian vultures by 2029

International commitment is needed now from over 120 countries to ensure the recovery of 15 vulture species

By Shaun Hurrell

African-Eurasian Vultures are the most threatened group of terrestrial migratory birds on the planet. Many have extensive soaring migrations (and a Rüppell’s Vulture Gyps rueppelli was recorded as the world’s highest-flying bird when it collided with an airliner), and their massive ranges mean that their safety can only be guaranteed if many countries come together and agree on a plan for their protection. This is where BirdLife International’s work comes in, supported by Partners around the world, with the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) providing a key platform.

It’s a huge problem and a huge area, so we have made an appropriate plan: namely, the Multi-species Action Plan to Conserve African-Eurasian Vultures (Vulture MsAP), developed by BirdLife, the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Vulture Specialist Group and Vulture Conservation Foundation, under the guidance of the CMS Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Birds of Prey in Africa and Eurasia (Raptors MOU), with input from numerous individual experts on vultures and their conservation.

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Massacre fears spark race to save rare Australia parrot

October 18, 2017

Critically endangered Swift Parrots are under threat from squirrel-like "sugar gliders" in a battle for space in Australia's ancient forests, scientists say as they race to save the rare birds.

Critically endangered Swift Parrots are under threat from squirrel-like sugar gliders in a battle for space in Australia's ancient forests, scientists said Wednesday as they race to save the rare birds.

Swift Parrots are migratory and only breed in the southern island state of Tasmania.

But the nomadic nectar-eating birds' nesting grounds—gum trees—are also popular with sugar gliders, small possums believed to have been introduced to Tasmania in the early 19th century.

The marsupials, which launch themselves from tree to tree and rarely descend to the ground, eat the nesting birds as well as their eggs and chicks, the Australian National University scientists said.

This year, both species are battling for real estate on Tasmania's east coast due to abundant eucalypt flowering in the region, which contains some of the world's oldest trees.

Read more at:

Samoa's national bird under threat

6:01 am on 2 October 2017 

Samoa's National Conservation Society is pinning hits hopes on an international awareness campaign to save, the manumea, Samoa's rare and elusive national bird.

The Society has teamed up with Auckland Zoo and Samoa's Ministry of Natural Resources, and a UK team to save the manumea.

Endemic to Samoa, the manumea is a unique tooth-billed pigeon and faces threat of extinction due to deforestation, the arrival of rats and cats and other human development on its island home.  

The President of the Samoa Conservation Society, James Atherton, told Moera Tuilaepa-Taylor, how rare the manumea is.

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More than a 38 percent of the Neotropical parrot population in the American continent is threatened by human activity

September 27, 2017

More than 38 percent of the neotropical parrot population of the American continent is endangered due the impact of human activity, according to a scientific study published in the journal Biological Conservation.

Hunting for local and international trade and the loss of natural habitat are the main threats for these tropical birds, according to the article led by the experts Igor Berkunsky (National University of Central Buenos Aires) and Juan Masello (Justus Liebig University, Germany). The study involved the collaboration of 101 experts from 76 institutions and non-governmental organizations to determine the main threats affecting 192 populations of 96 neotropical parrots in 21 countries.

From hunting pets to extinction

Capture for the pet trade is one of the main threats to the preservation of wild parrots. From 1980 to 1990, millions of individuals were captured in the neotropic and taken to the United States and Asia. This huge removal of parrots could be the cause of the decline and local extinction of many species, such as the Spix's macaw. In the African continent, the trade of the grey parrot played a main role in its removal in Ghana and other areas of Africa. Currently, some of the most threatened species in Brazil are the Spix's macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii) and the red-tailed amazon (Amazona brasiliensis). Species such as the sun parakeet (Aratinga solstitialis) and brown-backed parrotlet (Touit melanonotus) are quite vulnerable due the small size of their populations.

Read more at: