This year's Bird of the Century competition, which includes birds that went extinct in the past 100 years, has gotten me thinking.
Happy to add any other birds from here.
https://manifold.markets/JulianLees/john-olivers-campaign-for-puteketek?r=SnVsaWFuTGVlcw
Promising news for the kōtuku
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/501935/nesting-season-looks-promising-for-critically-endangered-kotuku
Some quite outstanding turnarounds and innovations in NZ conservation over many years (albeit with lots of work still to go).
Have done a rough coverage of my brief look at the options. Fairy terns and Taiko stood out to me as highest likelihood. Climate and storm threat seems significant for them alongside food sources, predation and human encroachment. Australasian bittern was another that stood out but admittedly the first time I've heard of it.
I think there's likely to be some larger shifts from the less endangered species so should they crop up I'll try to suggest. A species largely based in Dunedin rings a bell... Affected by disease wiping out large proportions of the population.
The technology and expenditure on individual species I hope will arrest some of these critically endangered species.
For example new Zealand monitors individual kākāpō. That's the level of support being provided. Perhaps not scalable though as more species are threatened.
I'm taking my typically optimistic view here. Haha
Kōtuku are also found outside of NZ:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_great_egret
Are we defining extinction as no longer existing in the country, or everywhere on earth?
@tfae Great question! Didn't realise that. I copied this list from the ones listed by DOC as 'nationally critical', but I think everywhere-on-Earth makes more sense for this market.