List of threatened birds of Brazil

The Spix's macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii) is a critically endangered species and may be extinct in the wild.

Brazil has more than 1900 bird species,[1] and according to the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation and the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment, there are 240 species or subspecies of Brazilian birds listed as threatened, six as extinct and two as extinct in the wild.[2][3] The Brazilian definition uses the same criteria and categories of IUCN.[4] Among the 33 orders of birds in Brazil, 22 have threatened species.[1][3] The passerine order (songbirds), besides being the most diverse order in Brazil, also has the most species on the Brazilian Red List, followed by parrots.[3][4] The Northeast Region, notably the Atlantic forest and Caatinga, has the most endemic and threatened birds, and two of them, the Alagoas curassow and the Spix's macaw, are considered to be extinct in the wild.[4] The Pernambuco Endemism Center presents many critically endangered species due to the intense destruction of the Atlantic forest.[4] Some species might be extinct in Brazil, like the glaucous macaw and the Eskimo curlew.[4]

A list of threatened species was published by Diário Oficial da União, on December 17, 2014.[3] Even though some species have been removed from the list (for instance, the hyacinth macaw), the number of threatened species has increased in comparison with the former list (which had 160 taxa).[4] Furthermore, the number of known species has been increasing considerably since the last half of the 20th century, and this has influenced the number of listed species.[4]

In spite of using the same criteria, the ICMBio list often shows a different conservation status than the IUCN.[4] That is because the assessments were done at different times by different researchers.[4]

  1. ^ a b Comitê Brasileiro de Registros Ornitológicos (1 January 2014). "Lista das aves do Brasil. 11ª edição". Retrieved 9 February 2016.
  2. ^ "Biodiversidade Fauna". Ministry of the Environment. Retrieved 9 February 2016.
  3. ^ a b c d Portaria No - 444, De 17 De Dezembro De 2014
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Silveira, L.F.; Straube, F.C. (2008). "Aves". In Machado, A.B.M.; Drummond, G.M.; Paglia, A.P. (eds.). Livro Vermelho da Fauna Brasileira Ameaçada de Extinção - Volume 2 (PDF) (in Portuguese). Brasília, DF: Ministry of the Environment. pp. 379–666. ISBN 978-85-7738-102-9.