Story at a glance
- Scientists from the University of New South Wales pooled data of bird sightings to estimate the prevalence of various species.
- The study found almost 50 billion individual birds may exist in the world, some more abundant than others.
- “In the face of ongoing biodiversity loss, there is an urgent need for conservation prioritization.”
As many as 50 billion birds call Earth home, according to a new data study conducted by researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia.
The authors examined data compiled by users on eBird, a large data repository for reported bird sightings, and published the results in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS)
Examining 724 sightings’ ecological and life history traits —such as body size, color, threat status and flock size —researchers estimated the existence of 9,700 bird species, amounting to roughly 50 billion individual birds — six for every single human.
A notable number of these bird species, however, are rare; approximately 1,180 species, or 12 percent of all species have populations of less than 5,000 individual birds.
“They may be rare for natural reasons – they really only live on one island or the top of one mountain for example – or they may be rare because of human causes,” lead author Will Cornwell at UNSW told The Guardian.
Some of the least abundant bird species included kiwis and mesites, whereas popular species were perching birds, shorebirds and waterfowls.The authors highlighted an ongoing need for conservation efforts to preserve these elusive species.
“In the face of ongoing biodiversity loss, there is an urgent need for conservation prioritization,” the authors said in the study.
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