Slender-billed curlew declared extinct

After finding no evidence of the slender-billed curlew in three decades, scientists have declared it extinct. This is one of the first recorded losses of a bird from mainland Europe. In research published recently in IBIS, researchers used the extinction probability framework developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature on the slender-billed curlew (Numenius tenuirostris), a shorebird that hasn’t had a confirmed sighting since 1995. The model revealed that the bird has a 96% chance of being extinct. The species used to breed in southern Siberia and Central Asia and spent winters in the Mediterranean Basin and in Arabia. The bird likely went extinct due to the loss of habitat in breeding grounds and in migratory stopover sites, among other factors.

Read more at ABC Birds.