Climate change hitting bird species, shows study By Madeline
Chambers BONN, Germany (Reuters) - One in eight of the world's
birds are at risk of extinction as climate change puts birds
under great pressure, a leading conservation group warned on
Monday. The population of rare birds such as the Floreana
mockingbird of the Galapagos Islands or the spoon-billed
sandpiper, which breeds in northeastern Russia and winters in
south Asia, has declined sharply and they could go extinct, the
International Union for Conservation of Nature said in a report.
The 2008 "Red List for Birds" report, published on the first day
of a May 19-30 U.N. conference about biodiversity in the German
city of Bonn, said 1,226 species of bird were now threatened.
The annual report, closely watched among conservationists, added
eight of the world's 10,000 bird species to the Critically
Endangered category, the greatest level of threat. "The latest
update of the IUCN Red List shows that birds are under enormous
pressure from climate change,"