Threatened birds of Sri Lanka

Biodiversity of the world is threatened by human activities in many ways. Identifying such threatened species is the key to conservation. International Conservation Union (IUCN) produce and maintain lists of threaten species in global scale based on the widely accepted scientific criteria. BirdLife International which is a network of organizations working on birds coordinates the assessments of the status of the world’s birds and, as the official red listing authority for birds for the IUCN red list.

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The IUCN red list criteria are used to determine extinction risk and set numerical thresholds for qualification for the three globally threatened categories (Critically endangered, Endangered and Vulnerable). These criteria are based on biological factors related to extinction risk and include rate of decline, population size, area of geographic distribution, and degree of population and distribution fragmentation.

According to the recent analysis done by BirdLife International (2007), 25 species of Sri Lankan birds are threatened. This includes resident species and regular visitors as well as vagrants. Another 26 species are categorized as ‘Near threatened’.

List of Globally threatened species recorded from Sri Lanka

 

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Nationally threatened birds of Sri Lanka

Avifauna of Sri Lanka is facing many threats in Sri Lanka and need urgent attention for conservation. Many other species which are not recognized as globally threatened species are facing threats of extinction local level within Sri Lanka due to many reasons.

Ministry of the Environment and Natural resources together with IUCN Sri Lanka produced most recent Red List for Sri Lankan fauna and flora following adjusted global red listing criteria at national level (MENR & IUCN, 2007). According to this analysis, 46 species of birds are identified as nationally threatened species. This includes 10 critically endangered species, 15 endangered species and 21 vulnerable species. Total of 39 species are identified as ‘Near threatened’ species in this assessment.

List of Nationally threatened species recorded from Sri Lanka