Thirty years ago, the Crested Lark (kuifleeuwerik in Dutch) was an abundant species in the Netherlands. Today they are much harder to find in the rapidly developing Western European country.

from Aat Bender’s photostream

Thirty years ago there were from three to five thousand breeding pairs of Crested Lark in the Netherlands. Today there are no breeding pairs left, according to Dutch bird research group SOVON. The preferred breeding grounds of the birds – flat, sandy patches – has been rapidly wiped out by industrial and new residential construction.

Source: Kuifleeuwerik verdwijnt uit Nederland

The Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board will have a public hearing in Springfield on January 23rd at 12:00pm. The purpose of the meeting is to take public comments on proposed changes to the Illinois List of Threatened and Endangered Species.

Several changes are proposed, including removing three bird species from threatened status: Bald Eagle; Henslow’s Sparrow and Sandhill Crane.

2 Bald Eagles from frnch’s photostream

Participants must register if they would like to make a statement. More information, including registration instructions and a full list of proposed changes, can be found here.

The Ivory-billed Woodpecker Research Project at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology will focus this year’s search in southwestern Florida. The search starts in January and goes through March and covers areas of Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve, and others.

Other groups will lead searches in the Florida panhandle, as well as Arkansas, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and southern Illinois. Read more about the project here.

Yesterday a team of paleontologists from the Netherlands’ natural history museum Naturalis traveled to Mauritius on a new expedition. During previous expeditions the Dutch team discovered a mass grave of Dodo bones and they are returning to the site to do more intensive research. Within the bones that were previously discovered, two distinct different sizes of birds can be identified. This indicates more than one species of Dodo.

In October 2005 Dutch researchers discovered a mass-grave of Dodo birds on the island of Mauritius. In June 2006 an international team of scientists returned to the location for further study. A new party from the Leiden museum Naturalis plans to return to Mauritius in August 2007 for more research.

Conservation plans are urgently needed for at least 1,221 bird species identified as threatened with extinction. BirdLife International’s Red List update also indicated that over 800 additional species are considered Near Threatened.

An automated birdwatching machine has been set up at a wildlife reserve in Arkansas to search for the rare Ivory-billed Woodpecker. The bird was presumed extinct for decades but unconfirmed sightings beginning in 2004 have sparked great interest in the bird.

The last Madagascar Pochard, a diving duck, was seen in 1991. This month a group of conservationists discovered a group of at least 25 pochards while searching for a rare hawk on the island.

Evidence of a so-called “terror bird” has been found in Argentina, scientists revealed last week. The bird, part of a family of flightless carnivores called phorusrhacids, reached up to three meters in height and was among the top carnivores in South America. Mammals hold that distinction in all other parts of the ancient world. Read the full story Big bird had swift legs at Nature.com.

Monal
From 603sabre on Flickr.

Experts say the recent decline of the exotic Monal bird in India is due to indiscriminate hunting. The Monal, the state bird of Himchal Pradesh, is prized by hunters because its feathers are in demand for use in the fashion industry. The bird’s meat is also popular. Read more in New Kerala.