One in eight birds face extinction: Report

A new report states that one in eight of the world's birds face extinction due to unbridled agricultural expansion and unsustainable forestry.

The report by Birdlife International -- The State of the World's Birds 2004 -- said, "Our global environment is under serious strain with a massive and still increasing haemorrhage of biodiversity."

Extinction of one in eight of birds would mean 1,211 species wiped off the face of earth. Of these, the report said, 179 species are critically endangered, 344 face very high risk of extinction and 688 are listed as vulnerable.

The report said threatened species were not evenly distributed among bird families with particularly high proportions among species of albatrosses (95 per cent), cranes (60 per cent), parrots (29 per cent), pheasants (26 per cent) and pigeons (23 per cent).

It said 966 species of globally threatened birds had populations of less than 10,000, while 502 species had populations less than 2,500. About 77 species had populations lower than 50.

The study said nearly all the world's countries and territories hosted one or more globally threatened bird species.

But it said some regions held particularly high densities of threatened species such as the tropical Andes, Atlantic forests of Brazil, the eastern Himalayas, eastern Madagascar and the archipelagos of southeastern Asia.