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What is the least common bird in the world (by todays statistics)) (1 Viewer)

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Peewit

Once a bird lover ... always a bird lover
What is the least common bird in the world (by todays statistics)2012)

Hi there

After the most common wild bird in the world thread on this area of BF.

Why not the 'current 2012' least common wild bird :gh:

A Spoon-billed Sandpiper comes to mind through all the press and the stories on the go at the moment

What do others think?

Regards
Kathy
x
 
Kakapo has to have a lower population than the Spoon-billed Sandpiper. North Island Kokado as well (probably some other NZ birds would fit in here as well)
 
It’s not really possible to know what is the rarest bird, since there are several species which may or may not still exist. None of the definitely-extant Hawaiian species is likely to be the rarest species, but there are several which haven’t been seen for a number of years which might still cling on in single figures.

Then there are birds like Kinglet Calyptura and Night Parrot which are clearly rare but are also very difficult to find, with unknown populations.

Of the species for which reasonable population estimates exist, I guess Chinese Crested Tern, Madagascar Pochard, Orange-bellied Parrot, Niau Kingfisher, Cebu Flowerpecker and Jankowski’s Bunting must be among the rarest.
 
DMW said:
It’s not really possible to know what is the rarest bird, since there are several species which may or may not still exist.
Click to expand...
Indeed. eg, BirdLife/IUCN currently list 15 species as CR (PE/PEW) – Critically Endangered, and Possibly Extinct or Possibly Extinct in the Wild. How can anyone meaningfully claim that a particular species is the 'least common wild bird'?
"There are known knowns; there are things we know that we know.
There are known unknowns; that is to say there are things that, we now know we don't know.
But there are also unknown unknowns – there are things we do not know, we don't know."​
 
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Cebu flowerpecker is a good canidate for the rarest bird which population is reasonably known.

Historically, there is a story that Laysan Duck population was once down to one bird, a female which soon laid a clutch of eggs. The species survived. If somebody can prove or disprove this story, I will be interested.
 
jurek said:
Historically, there is a story that Laysan Duck population was once down to one bird, a female which soon laid a clutch of eggs. The species survived. If somebody can prove or disprove this story, I will be interested.
Click to expand...

Unless it got itself knocked up, that story kinda disproves itself by it's very nature surely? ;)

There isn't an immaculate conception smiley, so this holy looking angel thing will do...o:D
 
Alagoas Foliage-gleaner is looking pretty "good" for this (impossibly hard to delineate and perhaps pointless) title; there are only two known sites, and there don't seem to be any records from either for c. 18 months, despite reasonably frequent visits by ornithologists. It might have just slipped away... Hopefully, I'm wrong, but there is no doubt that the species is exceptionally rare and, if really only known from two sites, with tiny populations at both, is perhaps biologically as good as extinct.
 
One of the few birds which could, perhaps, be confidently stated to be the rarest bird of it's time was "Martha" the last Passenger Pigeon which died on Setember 1st 1914 - just over 14 years after the last definite record of the species in the wild. Given the passage of time since the last wild record, the habits of the bird and the density of the population in the USA it is extremely unlikely that any birds persisted in the wild. You can't get rarer than being the last of your kind! (Perhaps 'equal rarest' might be safer as who can know if some other species of bird, a sad remnant of their race, lingered in the wild somewhere)

Finding the last of kind in the wild would be a daunting prospect and impossile to prove unless it was an island species (physically or by habitat) in a very limited (but easily explored) habitat which was under intensive scrutiny. Otherwise I think it's impossible to say which is the rarest bird in the world. The best you can do is to raw up a list of the most likely suspects,
 
According to this quarter's 'Waterlife' magazine, there are only 22 Madagascar pochards left in the wild, all on one lake.

That must make it a pretty strong contender?
 
John Cantelo said:
One of the few birds which could, perhaps, be confidently stated to be the rarest bird of it's time was "Martha" the last Passenger Pigeon which died on Setember 1st 1914 - just over 14 years after the last definite record of the species in the wild. Given the passage of time since the last wild record, the habits of the bird and the density of the population in the USA it is extremely unlikely that any birds persisted in the wild. You can't get rarer than being the last of your kind! (Perhaps 'equal rarest' might be safer as who can know if some other species of bird, a sad remnant of their race, lingered in the wild somewhere)

Finding the last of kind in the wild would be a daunting prospect and impossile to prove unless it was an island species (physically or by habitat) in a very limited (but easily explored) habitat which was under intensive scrutiny. Otherwise I think it's impossible to say which is the rarest bird in the world. The best you can do is to raw up a list of the most likely suspects,
Click to expand...

I read an article on the history of the Passenger Pigeon. It is a truly sad inditement of humanity, that one of the most numerous species on earth was destroyed so quickly by the power of man.

CB
 
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