One in eight bird species is threatened with extinction, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. In the latest update of the IUCN’s Red List of threatened species, 190 birds are designated “critically endangered”; eight of those were added this year. Sixteen other bird species were also moved to a higher level of threat on the list, while only two found their prospects improved. “Species are being hit by the double whammy of habitat loss and climate change,” says Stuart Butchart of BirdLife International, which helped compile the list. The most endangered feathered fauna include the Mallee emuwren, of which only about 100 are left in the wild, and the Floreana mockingbird, which is hanging on with a population of 60. To save them, says Butchart, we need “broad-scale climate-change mitigation measures” and a change in “society’s values and lifestyles.” Full-on societal change? That’s for the birds.
