List of extinct bird species since 1500

About 129 species of birds have become extinct since 1500, and the rate of extinction seems to be increasing. The situation is exemplified by Hawaii, where 30% of all known recently extinct bird taxa originally lived. Other areas, such as Guam, have also been hit hard; Guam has lost over 60% of its native bird taxa in the last 30 years, many of them due to the introduced brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis).

This article is about birds that have become extinct since 1500. For a list of birds known only from fossils, see List of fossil bird genera. For a list of birds birds extinct in Late Quaternary prehistoric times and (usually) known from specimens not completely fossilized, see List of Late Quaternary prehistoric bird species.
Avian species (IUCN, 2020-3)
  • 10,999 extant species have been evaluated
  • 10,947 of those are fully assessed
  • 9,461 are not threatened at present
  • 1,481 to 1,533 are threatened
  • 164 to 183 are extinct or extinct in the wild:
    • 159 extinct (EX) species
    • 5 extinct in the wild (EW)
    • 19 possibly extinct [CR(PE)]
  1. excludes data deficient evaluations.
  2. NT and LC.
  3. Threatened comprises CR, EN and VU. Upper estimate additionally includes DD.
  4. Chart omits extinct (EX) species

Currently there are approximately 10,000 living species of birds, with over 1,480 at risk of extinction and 223 critically endangered.

Island species in general, and flightless island species in particular, are most at risk. The disproportionate number of rails in this list reflects the tendency of that family to lose the ability to fly when geographically isolated. Even more rails became extinct before they could be described by scientists; these taxa are listed in List of Late Quaternary prehistoric bird species.

The extinction dates given below are usually approximations of the actual date of extinction. In some cases, more exact dates are given as it is sometimes possible to pinpoint the date of extinction to a specific year or even day (the San Benedicto rock wren is possibly the most extreme example – its extinction could be timed with an accuracy of maybe half an hour). Extinction dates in the literature are usually the dates of the last verified record (credible observation or specimen taken); for many Pacific birds that became extinct shortly after European contact, however, this leaves an uncertainty period of over 100 years, because the islands on which they lived were only rarely visited by scientists.

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