Two NZ birds on world endangered list

International endangered bird, the orange-fronted parakeet.

Two New Zealand bird species have been included on an international list of birds threatened with extinction.

Environmental group BirdLife International said at its annual meeting in Johannesburg yesterday that New Zealand's orange-fronted parakeet, and the yellowhead, or mohua, had joined a list of 1212 of the planet's bird species facing extinction as humans venture further into their habitats and introduce alien predators.

In Wellington, Forest and Bird spokesman Geoff Keey confirmed this morning that the orange-fronted parakeet has been the subject of a Conservation Department bid to build its numbers up but "one bad year could finish them off completely".

Meanwhile, the mohua was sometimes disappearing from afforested valleys completely but in other instances its numbers might be recovering, he said.

Both birds are found mostly in South Island beech forests and were vulnerable to predators if the beech had a good fruiting season and predator numbers increased as a result of an ample diet.

In some cases both species were threatened in forests where there had been extensive use of 1080 poison to control predators.

BirdLife, a global alliance of conservation groups, said in its annual assessment of the feathered fauna that the total number of world bird species considered to be threatened with extinction was now 1212.

It said 179 species were categorised as critically endangered, the highest level of threat. They include the Azores bullfinch, one of Europe's rarest songbirds that has fewer than 300 left.

In New Zealand, rat population explosions in 1999 and 2000 resulted in the loss of two populations of yellowhead and almost wiped out the orange-fronted parakeet, reducing its numbers to tens. Habitat destruction and the introduction of alien predators are among the biggest threats to bird populations globally.

"One in five bird species on the planet now faces a risk in the short or medium-term of joining the dodo, great auk and 129 other species that we know have become extinct since 1500," BirdLife said.

Dying breeds

* Among species to become extinct within European times were the bush wren (last recorded in 1972), New Zealand thrush (unconfirmed reports till 1963) and laughing owl (1914).

* The huia, a large wattle bird, disappeared in the 1920s after a European fashion craze for the huia's large, white-tipped, black tail feathers spelled the bird's end.

* Up to 14 species of moa and the the Haast eagle, the world's largest eagle, and the adzebill, an 80cm-tall weka-like bird, succumbed in the 1300s to predation by Maori and dogs and rats.

- NZPA