31 Rare Birds From Around the World Protected Under U.S. Law

The Service has committed to publishing final listing determinations for six species of foreign birds and proposed listings for an additional 25 species, in accordance with a negotiated timeline that terminates on December 29, 2009.

Alarmed about declines of scores of the world's rarest and most beautiful birds, ornithologists submitted petitions to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1980 and 1991 to list 73 bird species from around the world under the Endangered Species Act.

An endangered Cook's Petrel flies over Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand. (Photo credit unknown)

But in violation of the Endangered Species Act, the agency has spent the better part of two decades making recycled petition findings that these species continue to warrant listing, but that their listing is precluded due to higher-priority listings.

The Service has listed only six of the bird species and published proposed listing rules for 11 others. At least five of the 73 birds have gone extinct while waiting for protection.

Any progress that has been made toward protecting these species has been the result of lawsuits brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, negotiations, and court findings that if the Service continues at such a pace, "many of the species in question may very well be extinct by the time they are found to warrant a listing."

So the Center again notified the Fish and Wildlife Service of its intention to file suit for violations of the Endangered Species Act, and as a result of that notice reached a settlement with the agency to bring it into compliance with the Act.

"We are encouraged that the new administration is showing signs of clearing up its foreign listing program backlog and finally accepting its duty to list these extremely rare birds under the Endangered Species Act," said Center International Program staffer Jacki Lopez.

"Listing foreign species under the Act is an important step in spurring increased international recognition of those species' urgent plights," she said.

When foreign species are listed under the Endangered Species Act the President is authorized to provide financial assistance for the development and management of programs in foreign countries.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is authorized to encourage conservation programs for foreign endangered species and provide personnel and training for these programs.

Listing international species restricts trade in vanishing species, increases conservation funding and attention to recovery efforts, and adds scrutiny to projects proposed by the U.S. government and multilateral lending agencies.

The Service itself acknowledges the benefits of listing foreign species to draw worldwide attention to their plight, to make available U.S. expertise and U.S. funds, and to compel the strict regulation of the import and export of protected species.

In order to adhere to the negotiated timeline, the Fish and Wildlife Service promises to publish final listing determinations for these six species of seabirds:

• Chatham petrel, Pterodroma axillaris; in New Zealand
• magenta petrel, Pterodroma magentae; in New Zealand
• Cook's petrel, Pterodroma cookii, in New Zealand
• Fiji petrel, Pterodroma macgillivrayi, in Fiji, fewer than 50 birds remain
• Galapagos petrel, Pterodroma phaeopygia, in Ecuador
• Heinroth's shearwater, Puffinus heinrothi, in Papua New Guinea

Galapagos petrel (Photo courtesy Wikipedia)

Introduced dogs, cats and pigs take eggs, young and adults, and rats eat the petrel chicks. Hawks and owls may take adult birds. Nest-site destruction by goats, donkeys, cattle and horses is a major threat. Clearance of vegetation for agriculture and intensive grazing has severely restricted the petrels' breeding area.

Adult mortality occurs when Galapagos petrels are caught on barbed wire fences on agricultural land, and collide with power lines and radio towers and guy wires. Development of a wind power project on the island of Santa Cruz was a potential threat to many breeding colonies on that island, but the development plan aims to minimize effects on the species.

Long-line fishing in the eastern Pacific and in the Galapagos Marine Reserve is a threat because the petrels dive on the baited lines and get snagged or entangled.

The Galapagos Islands are a national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Proposed conservation measures include rat eradication and protection of more marine key biodiversity areas within the Galapagos Marine Reserve by changing the existing marine zoning scheme to reduce the impact from fishing.

As part of the settlement with the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will propose listings for these species:

• Junin flightless grebe, Podiceps taczanowskii, Peruvian Andes
• Junin rail, Laterallus tuerosi, Peruvian Andes
• Brazilian merganser, Mergus octosetaceus, South America
• Caucau guan, Crax alberti, northern Colombia
• blue-billed curassow, Penelope perspicax, Colombian Andes
• gorgeted wood-quail, Odontophorus strophium, Colombian Andes
• southeastern rufous-vented groundcuckoo, Neomorphus geoffroyi dulcis, South America
• Margaretta's hermit, hummingbird, Phaethornis malaris margarettae, Mexico to Argentina
• Esmeraldas woodstar, hummingbird, Chaetocerus berlepschi, South America
• royal cinclodes, Cinclodes aricomae, Peruvian and Bolivian Andes
• white-browed tit-spinetail, Leptasthenura xenothorax, south-central Peru
• black-hooded antwren, Formicivora erythronotos, southern coastal Brazil
• fringe-backed fire-eye, Pyriglena atra, southern coastal Brazil
• brown-banded antpitta, Grallaria milleri, Colombian Andes
• Kaempfer's tody-tyrant, Hemitriccus kaempferi, southeast Brazil
• ash-breasted tit-tyrant, Anairetes alpinus, high Andes of Peru and Bolivia
• Peruvian plantcutter, Phytotoma raimondii; South America
• cherry-throated tanager, Nemosia rourei, South America
• greater adjutant stork, Leptoptilos dubius, India, Cambodia
• salmon-crested cockatoo, Cacatua moluccensis, Southeast Asia
• Eiao Polynesian warbler, Acrocephalus cafier aquilonis, Southeast Asia
• Cantabrian capercaillie, Tetrao urogallus cantabricus, Spain
• Jerdon's courser, Rhinoptilus bitorquatus, India
• slender-billed curlew, Numenius tenuirostris, Russia, Europe, and North Africa
• Marquesan imperial pigeon, Ducula galeata, Marquesas Islands, South Pacific

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