# Rarissima Avis **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 22, 2005, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarissima-avis/295800 "2005-03-22T23:52:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarissima-avis/295800/1 "2005-03-22T23:52:17Z")
As most of us with an interest in extinctions know, the last dusky seaside sparrow died a year or so ago. It was one of those rare cases of a small species endemic to a given limited habitat and closely related to a larger, more widespread species. With that bird no longer extant, and the population of California condors slowly climbing out of the danger zone, what is now thought to be the rarest living bird? ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarissima-avis/295800/2 "2005-03-23T00:04:06Z")
How about the [kakapo](http://www.kakapo.net/en/)? ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarissima-avis/295800/3 "2005-03-23T00:06:33Z")
The [cahow](http://www.irf.org/bcahow.htm) seems to be somewhere in between the California Condor and the kakapo in terms of numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarissima-avis/295800/4 "2005-03-23T00:09:27Z")
Another New Zealand bird, the [takahe,](http://www.doc.govt.nz/Conservation/001~Plants-and-Animals/001~Native-Animals/Takahe.asp) would be one of the rarest I suspect. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarissima-avis/295800/5 "2005-03-23T00:13:17Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > As most of us with an interest in extinctions know, the last dusky seaside sparrow died a year or so ago. It was one of those rare cases of a small species endemic to a given limited habitat and closely related to a larger, more widespread species. > > With that bird no longer extant, and the population of California condors slowly climbing out of the danger zone, what is now thought to be the rarest living bird? The rarest known bird is the [Poo-uli](http://audubon2.org/webapp/watchlist/viewSpecies.jsp?id=163) of Hawaii. The most recent counts recorded only three birds. However, I heard last night that a recent search failed to find any, so perhaps we may need to look for a new candidate. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarissima-avis/295800/6 "2005-03-23T00:16:43Z")
> [@Cunctator](#): > > Another New Zealand bird, the [takahe,](http://www.doc.govt.nz/Conservation/001~Plants-and-Animals/001~Native-Animals/Takahe.asp) would be one of the rarest I suspect. > [@Laughing Lagomorph](#): > > How about the kakapo? Ah, yes, New Zealand – the place where all the indigenous mammals fly, and most of the indigenous birds don’t! 🙂 Thanks for the answers, **LL** and **Cunctator**! ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarissima-avis/295800/7 "2005-03-23T00:23:54Z")
I had the great privilege of working for the New Zealand Wildlife Service (now the NZ Department of Conservation) from 1981-1985, and participated in the Kakapo recovery program. (I calculated I handled 10% of the known world population of the species at that time.) While it was really touch and go back then, they have started a comeback and [are now up to a whopping 86 individuals.](http://www.kakaporecovery.org.nz/then/index.html) I also had the chance to work a little with Takahe. Although they have been in decline, there are still 130 in their natural range, plus 60 on offfshore islands and others in captivity. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarissima-avis/295800/8 "2005-03-23T00:31:05Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Ah, yes, New Zealand – the place where all the indigenous mammals fly, and most of the indigenous birds don’t! 🙂 Thanks for the answers, **LL** and **Cunctator**! Never let it be said that New Zealand can outdo Australia in any respect. Here’s a list of [Australian birds considered to be critically endangered.](http://www.birdsaustralia.com.au/actionplan/endangered.html) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarissima-avis/295800/9 "2005-03-23T00:33:21Z")
More on the [Po’o-uli](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6630652/). The last bird in captivity just recently died, two others in the wild have been missing for more than a year. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarissima-avis/295800/10 "2005-03-23T00:51:09Z")
A rarer species than the Kakapo, Takahe, or Cahow is probably the Alagoas Currassow, now extinct in the wild. There were 44 in captivity in 2000, the most recent date I was able to find data from. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarissima-avis/295800/11 "2005-03-23T01:04:11Z")
The rarest currently living bird species is probably one that’s thought likely to be extinct, but of which a few individuals still survive in some remote location (as was the case for the Takahe). North American candidates would include Bachmans Warbler and the Eskimo Curlew. Some still hold faint hope for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarissima-avis/295800/12 "2005-03-23T01:17:43Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > Some still hold faint hope for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker. As I understand, while the possible population at the old “last stand” of the IBWP in Louisiana is subject to a lot of skepticism, there have been reliable sightings and/or confirmed calls at a reported population site in Cuba, but they haven’t been validated by professional ornithologists and published. If you’ll excuse the Princess Bride-ism, they’re only mostly extinct! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarissima-avis/295800/13 "2005-03-23T01:18:22Z")
For that matter the rarest currently living bird species is probably something that has never been officially identified…something in a remote, restricted habitat somewhere which is quickly being eliminated. I therefore took the OP to mean species for which there was very recent evidence (within the last year, like dusky seaside sparrow example mentioned in the OP) they weren’t extinct. Sad as it makes me I believe the Eskimo Curlew and Ivory Billed Woodpecker are probably gone for good. Bachman’s Warbler I still hold out hope for. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarissima-avis/295800/14 "2005-03-23T01:29:53Z")
> [@Laughing Lagomorph](#): > > I therefore took the OP to mean species for which there was very recent evidence (within the last year, like dusky seaside sparrow example mentioned in the OP) they weren’t extinct. That was my intent – not the possibility that there’s a Heath Hen or a Carolina Paroquet lurking somewhere, but “We’ve sighted them relatively recently, so they are in fact still around as of \_\_\_.” ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarissima-avis/295800/15 "2005-03-23T01:42:42Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > As I understand, while the possible population at the old “last stand” of the IBWP in Louisiana is subject to a lot of skepticism, there have been reliable sightings and/or confirmed calls at a reported population site in Cuba, but they haven’t been validated by professional ornithologists and published. If you’ll excuse the Princess Bride-ism, they’re only mostly extinct! 🙂 The Ivory-bill was confirmed to still exist in Cuba in the 1980s, by professional ornithologists, but the last record from the main known site was in 1988. However, there does seem to have been a new record from another site as recently as 1998. ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarissima-avis/295800/16 "2005-04-29T18:33:36Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > The rarest known bird is the [Poo-uli](http://audubon2.org/webapp/watchlist/viewSpecies.jsp?id=163) of Hawaii. The most recent counts recorded only three birds. > > However, I heard last night that a recent search failed to find any, so perhaps we may need to look for a new candidate. And this one, **Colibri** : \*\*The Official Ivory-bill Is Alive Thread \*\* in MPSIMS ---
**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarissima-avis/295800/17 "2005-04-30T17:35:44Z")
Although probably not as badly off as the Ivory-billed woodpecker, [Spix’s macaw](http://www.arabrasil.org/Spix/Spix_AFA.htm) is pretty severely endangered, with a total world population of only about 60 birds (up from a low of 11 courtesy of captive breeding). There’s only one known Spix’s macaw still living free in the wild. (Unfortunately the list of critically endangered birds is a long one.) ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarissima-avis/295800/18 "2005-04-30T21:05:46Z")
> [@artemis](#): > > Unfortunately the list of critically endangered birds is a long one. One suspects it has been ever thus. (And can we stipulate that this does not mean I’m in favor of or indifferent to threatened extinctions.) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2005, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarissima-avis/295800/19 "2005-05-01T00:17:30Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > One suspects it has been ever thus. Probably not. The extinction rate for birds went up drastically after humans came on the scene. ---
**Author:** ![MrAlpen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@MrAlpen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAlpen)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarissima-avis/295800/20 "2005-05-03T14:04:13Z")
Good news! Cases of [unextinctintion](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4493825.stm) are also on the rise, though! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarissima-avis/295800.md?page=2)