Global bird species in serious decline.

• Author: Block, Ben
• Position: EYE ON EARTH - Sidamo lark - Brief article

Known to researchers for only 40 years, the elusive Sidamo lark may soon become the first known bird species to disappear from mainland Africa. The speckled brown lark is rapidly losing ground as residents convert Ethiopia's grasslands to heavily grazed pasture.

"We estimate there are fewer than 250 adult individuals left," said Claire Spottiswoode, a research fellow at the University of Cambridge. "In the absence of urgent conservation action on the ground, it is only a matter of time before it goes extinct."

The Sidamo lark is among the most endangered birds listed by Bird Life International in the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species. The IUCN Red List, considered the authority on the status of the world's plant and animal species, now covers 1,227 bird species (12 percent of known birds)...