Wednesday, March 29, 2006

America's Most Endangered Birds

The National Audubon Society this week published online its list of the Top 10 Most Endangered Birds in North America. The list was published as a way to draw attention to recent proposals in Congress to weaken the Endangered Species Act. Here is the list (pdf):

  1. Ivory-billed Woodpecker
  2. California Condor
  3. Whooping Crane
  4. Gunnison Sage-Grouse
  5. Kirtland’s Warbler
  6. Piping Plover
  7. Florida Scrub-Jay
  8. Ashy Storm-Petrel
  9. Golden-cheeked Warbler
  10. Kittlitz’s Murrelet
Audubon's presentation highlights species across a range of bird families and with different habitat needs, showing the array of threats to birds and challenges to conservationists. The report includes a separate section listing the most endangered birds of Hawaii.

Like nuthatch, I wondered about the wisdom of leading the list with the ivory-billed woodpecker given the continuing controversy over the validity of the CLO's findings in Arkansas. But this list was prepared at some point last year; I received a pamphlet from NAS during the fall that had this list with the same species on it. I wonder why it took them so long to release this on their website.

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