BirdLife News Round-up: January 2009

We are over 6 billion people. We have dizzying amounts of information at our fingertips. We travel the globe with ease, and can view any point on its surface through our computer screens. Surely there can’t be many surprises left to discover about this little planet?

In 1899, Charles H. Duell said: “Everything that can be invented has been invented”. Since that time inventors have created airplanes, computers, atomic bombs the internet... They’ve even put people on the moon. I think Charlie might have got it wrong.

BirdLife news last month showed just how much there is still to discover in the natural world. BirdLife were part of a team of scientists who uncovered new species of butterfly and snake, along with seven Globally Threatened birds, in a remote patch of forest (Google Earth reveals hidden oasis).

We also reported that a new bird species has been found in China’s Guangxi province. "This is exciting evidence that there could be many more interesting discoveries awaiting ornithologists in China", said BirdLife’s Dr Nigel Collar (Chinese year of the babbler). Teams currently searching for undiscovered populations of Critically Endangered Chinese Crested Tern (Fujian Birdwatchers take Chinese Crested Tern message to schools), and Wroughton's Free-tailed Bat (BirdLife in Indochina leads $9.5 million conservation fund) will certainly gain hope from these recent discoveries.

Last month we also heard that the theme of The British Birdwatching Fair 2009 will be 'Lost and Found' – highlighting the fact that 45 Critically Endangered birds have no known population and require intensive searches to establish whether they still exist (British Birdwatching Fair continues to Prevent Extinction). The news came out during a ceremony where organisers of the fair handed the BirdLife Preventing Extinctions Programme a cheque for £265,000 ($380,000). Fantastic!

Sadly it’s not all good news. A study published in BirdLife’s journal - Bird Conservation International – has discovered massive population declines in Northern Rockhopper Penguin Eudyptes moseleyi (Penguins are walking an increasingly rocky road).

Technological advances allowed a group of scientists to reveal the amazing journey of a Sooty Falcon Falco concolor from the United Arab Emirates to Madagascar (Sooty Falcon requires urgent action). Epic flights like these help to illustrate the international nature of conserving migratory birds, and the many threats that they face. We’re now hoping that 2009 will be the first year that trapping will be banned in Malta – an island where thousands of migratory birds are illegally killed each year (A new dawn for Malta).

France is also an extraordinary crossroads for bird migration, and bird watchers have inputted more than 45 million migratory bird records into an online database. The LPO (BirdLife in France) led initiative has proven extremely successful at harnessing the wonder of bird migration to acquire important data (Migraction: Forty-five million migratory birds call for help).

Taking part in bird studies is easy and fun. January marked 30 years of the RSPB’s (BirdLife in the UK) Big Garden Birdwatch, and I was one of more than half a million people who helped to track winter garden bird numbers (World’s biggest wildlife survey turns 30!). The event certainly reminded me just how much life there is in my back garden. But did I discover anything new? Maybe next time…

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