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The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species was increasingly used during the 1980s to assess the conservation status of species for policy and planning purposes. This use stimulated the development of a new set of quantitative criteria for listing species in the categories of threat: critically endangered, endangered, and vulnerable. These criteria, which were intended to be applicable to all species except microorganisms, were part of a broader system for classifying threatened species and were fully implemented by IUCN in 2000. The system and the criteria have been widely used by conservation practitioners and scientists and now underpin one indicator being used to assess the Convention on Biological Diversity 2010 biodiversity target. We describe the process and the technical background to the IUCN Red List system. The criteria refer to fundamental biological processes underlying population decline and extinction. But given major differences between species, the threatening processes affecting them, and the paucity of knowledge relating to most species, the IUCN system had to be both broad and flexible to be applicable to the majority of described species. The system was designed to measure the symptoms of extinction risk, and uses 5 independent criteria relating to aspects of population loss and decline of range size. A species is assigned to a threat category if it meets the quantitative threshold for at least one criterion. The criteria and the accompanying rules and guidelines used by IUCN are intended to increase the consistency, transparency, and validity of its categorization system, but it necessitates some compromises that affect the applicability of the system and the species lists that result. In particular, choices were made over the assessment of uncertainty, poorly known species, depleted species, population decline, restricted ranges, and rarity; all of these affect the way red lists should be viewed and used. Processes related to priority setting and the development of national red lists need to take account of some assumptions in the formulation of the criteria. /// La Lista Roja de Especies Amenazadas de la UICN (Unión Internacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza) fue muy utilizada durante la década de 1980 para evaluar el estatus de conservación de especies para fines políticos y de planificación. Este uso estimuló el desarrollo de un conjunto nuevo de criterios cuantitativos para enlistar especies en las categorías de amenaza: en peligro crítico, en peligro y vulnerable. Estos criterios, que se pretendía fueran aplicables a todas las especies excepto microorganismos, eran parte de un sistema general para clasificar especies amenazadas y fueron implementadas completamente por la UICN en 2000. El sistema y los criterios han sido ampliamente utilizados por practicantes y científicos de la conservación y actualmente apuntalan un indicador utilizado para evaluar el objetivo al 2010 de la Convención de Diversidad Biológica. Describimos el proceso y el respaldo técnico del sistema de la Lista Roja de la IUCN. Los criterios se refieren a los procesos biológicos fundamentales que subyacen en la declinación y extinción de una población. Pero, debido a diferencias mayores entre especies, los procesos de amenaza que los afectan y la escasez de conocimiento sobre la mayoría de las especies, el sistema de la UICN tenía que ser amplio y flexible para ser aplicable a la mayoría de las especies descritas. El sistema fue diseñado para medir los síntomas del riesgo de extinción, y utiliza cinco criterios independientes que relacionan aspectos de la pérdida poblacional y la declinación del rango de distribución. Una especie es asignada a una categoría de amenaza si cumple el umbral cuantitativo por lo menos para un criterio. Los criterios, las reglas acompañantes y las directrices utilizadas por la UICN tienen la intención de incrementar la consistencia, transparencia y validez de su sistema de clasificación, pero requiere algunos compromisos que afectan la aplicabilidad del sistema y las listas de especies que resultan. En particular, se hicieron selecciones por encima de la evaluación de incertidumbre, especies poco conocidas, especies disminuidas, declinación poblacional, rangos restringidos y rareza; todas estas afectan la forma en que las listas rojas deberían ser vistas y usadas. Los procesos relacionados con la definición de prioridades y el desarrollo de las listas rojas nacionales necesitan considerar algunos de los supuestos en la formulación de los criterios.

Climate change is having profound effects on the distributions of species globally. Trait-based assessments predict that specialist and range-restricted species are among those most likely to be at risk of extinction from such changes. Understanding individual species’ responses to climate change is therefore critical for informing conservation planning. We use an established Species Distribution Modelling (SDM) protocol to describe the curious range-restriction of the globally threatened White-tailed Swallow ( Hirundo megaensis ) to a small area in southern Ethiopia. We find that, across a range of modelling approaches, the distribution of this species is well described by two climatic variables, maximum temperature and dry season precipitation. These same two variables have been previously found to limit the distribution of the unrelated but closely sympatric Ethiopian Bush-crow ( Zavattariornis stresemanni ). We project the future climatic suitability for both species under a range of climate scenarios and modelling approaches. Both species are at severe risk of extinction within the next half century, as the climate in 68–84% (for the swallow) and 90–100% (for the bush-crow) of their current ranges is predicted to become unsuitable. Intensive conservation measures, such as assisted migration and captive-breeding, may be the only options available to safeguard these two species. Their projected disappearance in the wild offers an opportunity to test the reliability of SDMs for predicting the fate of wild species. Monitoring future changes in the distribution and abundance of the bush-crow is particularly tractable because its nests are conspicuous and visible over large distances.

Overharvesting of wildlife for trade is a key driver of biodiversity loss. Messaging that is aligned with people's values could play a significant role in reducing this impact through behaviour change. Using an online survey, we sought to gauge the willingness among bird hobbyists, breeders, and song contestants to change their bird‐keeping behaviours, and to identify barriers to such change. We then evaluated the persuasiveness of various messages that potentially align with people's values (e.g. addressing conservation, cultural and health considerations), each framed as positive or negative, and with outcomes involving a move to commercially bred birds or cessation of purchasing wild‐caught birds. We identified a degree of plasticity in behaviour, with most respondents perceiving the keeping of wild‐caught birds to be a conservation problem, and a majority claiming they would attempt to breed birds in the future. However, while most respondents acknowledged the illegality of both buying and catching wild birds, they also recognised that most birds in markets are wild‐caught because they are easier and cheaper to source than captive‐bred birds. Messages about the damage done by over‐exploitation to wild bird populations, to the future of bird‐keeping itself, and about the benefits of keeping captive‐bred over wild‐caught birds, were most effective. Messages about generational, legal and especially health concerns appeared to gain little traction. The persuasiveness of these messages varied little across bird‐keeping groups, but age‐ and user‐groups differed in their most trusted sources of information and the media they consulted. Our results suggest that appealing to people's concern over the intrinsic value of wildlife or the relational value of cultural heritage might be more effective at shifting demand for wildlife products than more instrumental or utilitarian considerations. Effective messaging should focus on the negative impacts of over‐exploitation on Indonesia's wildlife and/or national heritage, and on the positive aspects of sustainable captive‐bred alternatives, and be transmitted via multiple media, including local and faith leaders (choice varying geographically), to maximise outreach to the diverse bird‐keeping community. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Abstrak Pemanenan berlebih satwa liar untuk perdagangan merupakan penyebab utama hilangnya keanekaragaman hayati. Pesan yang selaras dengan nilai masyarakat dapat berperan penting dalam mengurangi dampaknya melalui perubahan perilaku. Menggunakan survei daring, kami berusaha mengukur kemauan di antara penghobi burung, peternak, dan peserta kontes burung kicau untuk mengubah perilaku pemeliharaan burung mereka, dan untuk mengidentifikasi hambatan terhadap perubahan tersebut. Kemudian kami mengevaluasi daya persuasi pesan‐pesan yang berpotensi selaras dengan nilai‐nilai masyarakat (misalnya terkait konservasi, budaya, dan pertimbangan kesehatan), masing‐masing dibingkai secara positif atau negatif, dan dengan hasil yang melibatkan perubahan ke burung yang dibudidayakan secara komersial atau penghentian pembelian burung tangkapan di alam. Kami mengidentifikasi adanya tingkat plastisitas dalam perilaku, dengan sebagian besar responden memandang pemeliharaan burung yang ditangkap di alam sebagai masalah konservasi, dan mayoritas menyatakan mereka akan mencoba untuk membiakkan burung di masa depan. Namun, sementara sebagian besar responden mengakui ilegalitas membeli dan menangkap burung liar, mereka juga menyadari bahwa sebagian besar burung di pasar ditangkap di alam karena lebih mudah dan lebih murah diperoleh daripada burung yang dibudidayakan di penangkaran. Pesan paling efektif adalah pesan tentang kerusakan yang ditimbulkan oleh eksploitasi berlebihan terhadap populasi burung liar, masa depan pemeliharaan burung itu sendiri, dan tentang manfaat memelihara burung yang dibudidayakan di penangkaran dibandingkan dengan yang ditangkap di alam liar. Pesan tentang masalah generasi, legal, dan terutama kesehatan tampaknya kurang mendapat perhatian. Daya persuasi pesan‐pesan ini sedikit berbeda di antara kelompok pemelihara burung, tetapi kelompok usia dan pengguna memiliki perbedaan dalam sumber informasi dan media yang paling mereka percayai. Hasil kami menunjukkan bahwa menarik perhatian orang terhadap nilai intrinsik satwa liar atau nilai relasional warisan budaya dapat lebih efektif dalam mengalihkan permintaan untuk produk satwa liar daripada pertimbangan yang lebih instrumental atau utilitarian. Pesan yang efektif harus fokus pada dampak negatif dari eksploitasi berlebihan terhadap satwa liar dan/atau warisan nasional Indonesia, dan pada aspek positif dari alternatif penangkaran berkelanjutan, dan disebarkan melalui berbagai media, termasuk pemimpin lokal dan agama (pilihan bervariasi secara geografis), untuk memaksimalkan jangkauan ke komunitas pemelihara burung yang beragam. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

The Bali myna Leucopsar rothschildi has long suffered heavy trapping, leading to its near extinction in the wild and categorization as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Decades of conservation breeding, release of birds and post-release management at Bali Barat National Park have, until recently, failed to secure a viable wild population. However, over the past decade, population increases, expansion into new areas of the National Park and beyond, and successful breeding in both artificial and natural nest sites have occurred. These recent successes are associated with a change in approach by the National Park authority from concentrating efforts on the last refugium of the species (an area protected from trapping but with potentially suboptimal habitat) and towards the human-dominated landscapes around the main road through the National Park. Bali mynas tended to favour areas with extensive shorter grass cover and open canopies and to shun denser woodland. Anthropogenic landscapes such as farmland and plantations presumably mimic the original savannah habitat of the species, but nestbox provision has probably been crucial in these areas in the absence of natural cavities. A potential further factor in the increases in myna numbers and range has been a scheme involving local people in commercial breeding of the species, thereby reducing its market price, and working with communities to reduce trapping pressure. We encourage continuing operation of this management strategy inside the National Park and its further extension into adjacent tourist areas, which appear to have myna-friendly socio-ecological conditions.

Over 70 million cage‐birds are kept across 12 million households on the island of Java, Indonesia, fuelling serious concerns for the health of regional wild bird populations. Understanding the behaviours, preferences and demographic profiles of bird‐keepers will guide attempts to reduce demand for wild birds and hence the impact of trade on wild populations and their host ecosystems. We profile three songbird‐keeping user‐groups based on interviews of nearly one thousand people across Java: hobbyists, who own birds primarily as pets; contestants, who own birds to enter in singing contests; and breeders, who own birds to breed and train for resale or as a pastime. User‐groups diverged in their bird‐keeping habits and preferences. Hobbyists tended to own small numbers of inexpensive and typically native birds, while contestants and breeders owned larger numbers of often valuable birds. Hobbyists were far less likely to consider origin when buying a bird, owned a larger proportion of both potentially wild‐caught and globally threatened birds, but showed no preference for any taxon. By contrast, owning relatively large numbers of lovebirds Agapornis spp. and Zebra Doves Geopelia striata were key characteristics of contestants, while breeders owned the largest number of birds and species, in particular White‐rumped Shamas Kittacincla malabarica. Within a 2‐year period, user‐group membership was fluid, with much transitioning between non‐bird ownership and hobbyists, recruitment of non‐bird owners to contestants and movement both in and out of the breeder group. Our study provides behavioural change efforts with demographic and geographic profiles to target bird‐keepers, who tended to be more affluent and urban and to live in the eastern provinces. Among bird‐keepers, hobbyists tended to be middle‐aged and lived in the western provinces, contestants were younger urban bird‐keepers employed in business and breeders were commoner in the eastern provinces, reflecting the cultural importance of bird‐keeping among the Javanese. Efforts to increase the sustainability of bird‐keeping in Java should focus on emphasizing the importance of captive‐bred birds, in particular to hobbyists, the largest user‐group, whose bird‐keeping behaviour poses the biggest threat to wild bird populations, whilst also incentivizing legitimate breeding enterprises among contestants and breeders. Abstrak Lebih dari 70 juta burung dipelihara di sangkar oleh 12 juta keluarga di Pulau Jawa, Indonesia, memicu kekhawatiran mendalam tentang kondisi burung liar di pulau ini. Pemahaman tentang profil perilaku, preferensi dan demografi pemelihara burung.akan menjadi panduan untuk mengurangi permintaan akan burung liar dan karenanya juga dampak perdagangan burung liar dan ekosistem tempat hidupnya. Kami menggambarkan tiga kelompok‐pengguna pemelihara burung berdasarkan pada wawancara dengan hampir tiga ribu orang di seluruh Jawa: penggemar, mereka yang memiliki burung sebagai hewan peliharaan; kontestan, mereka yang memiliki burung untuk lomba burung berkicau; dan peternak, mereka yang memiliki burung untuk diternak dan dilatih untuk dijual atau untuk hiburan. Kelompok‐pengguna tersebut berbeda dalam kebiasaan dan kecenderungan memelihara burung. Penggemar cenderung memiliki sedikit burung yang tidak mahal dan umumnya jenis burung asli/lokal, sementara kontestan dan peternak memiliki banyak burung dan sering kali burung yang sangat mahal. Para penggemar sangat jarang mempertimbangkan asal‐usul ketika membeli burung, sebagian besar memiliki burung yang mungkin berasal dari penangkapan di alam dan terancam secara global, tetapi tidak menunjukkan preferensi pada jenis tertentu. Sebaliknya, ciri utamakontestan adalah memiliki jumlah dan jenis burung paling banyak, terutama burung Kucica hutan Kittacincla malabarica. Dalam periode dua tahun, keanggotaan kelompok‐pengguna berubah‐ubah, dengan banyak transisi antara yang tidak memiliki burung dan penggemar; penambahan kelompok yang tidak memiliki burung ke konstestandan pergerakan masuk dan keluar dari kelompok peternak. Penelitian kami menyajikan upaya perubahan perilaku dengan profil demografik dan geografik dengan sasaran pemelihara burung, yang cenderung lebih makmur, urban dan tinggal di wilayah bagian timur. Di antara pemelihara burung, penggemar cenderung paruh baya, dan tinggal di Jawa bagian barat, kontestan adalah pemelihara burung yang lebih muda, urban, berwirausaha, dan peternak lebih umum di Jawa bagian timur, menunjukkan pentingnya aspek budaya dalam pelihara burung pada orang Jawa. Usaha‐usaha untuk meningkatkan kelestarian pemeliharaan burung di Jawa harus fokus pada penekanan pentingnya burung hasil ternak di kandang, terutama untuk penggemar, kelompok pengguna terbesar, yang perilakunya memelihara burung telah menimbulkan ancaman terbesar pada populasi burung liar. Sementara itu perlu juga memberi insentif kepada para kontestan dan peternak yang berternak burung sesuai peraturan yang berlaku di Indonesia. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

The Bahama Warbler Setophaga flavescens is restricted to Grand Bahama and Abaco in the Bahamas Islands, where in recent decades its pine forest habitat has been seriously affected by hurricanes. To assess its conservation status and determine its habitat requirements, we conducted point transects with playback and simultaneously took measurements at 464 locations in pine forest across Grand Bahama from April to June 2018. Warbler presence was predicted by taller Thatch Palms Thrinax radiata and some fire disturbance, and its absence by a higher number of needleless pines. A comparison of these habitat predictors between the combined regions where warblers were detected (Lucayan Estates and East End) vs. where they were not (West End and Freeport) also revealed that Bahama Warblers showed a marked preference for taller Thatch Palms (>140 cm) and habitat plots within the middle fire disturbance category. These findings suggest that the species is adapted to a climax pine forest habitat maintained under a standard fire regime. Our research was intended to provide a first baseline study of the warbler’s distribution and ecology on Grand Bahama, but the distribution may have radically changed following Hurricane Dorian’s devastation of the island in 2019, and the species may now only survive on Abaco. Nevertheless, ecological insights from Grand Bahama seem likely to help conservation management on Abaco, but both islands now need to be surveyed.

A fundamental issue in migration biology is how birds decide when to start their journey, given that arriving too early or too late in a variable environment reduces individual fitness. Internal circannual regulation and predictable cues such as photoperiod prepare birds for migration, while variable external cues such as temperature and wind are thought to fine-tune departure times; however, this has not been demonstrated at the key point at which an individual animal decides to start migrating. In theory, environmental cues correlated between departure and arrival sites allow informed departure decisions. For 48 satellite-tracked Asian houbara Chlamydotis macqueenii, a medium-distance migrant with climatic connectivity between wintering and breeding areas, each tracked across multiple years, spring departure was under individually consistent temperature conditions, with greater individual repeatability than for photoperiod or wind. Individuals occupied a range of wintering sites latitudinally spanning 1,200 km but departed at lower temperatures from more northerly latitudes. These individual departure decisions produced earlier mean population-level departure and arrival dates in warmer springs. Phenological adjustments were fully compensatory, because individuals arrived on the breeding grounds under similar temperature conditions each year. Individuals’ autumn departure decisions were also repeatable for temperature but less distinct than for spring, likely because of relaxed time constraints on leaving breeding grounds and the use of wind as a supplementary departure cue. We show that individual-level departure decisions informed by local temperatures can preadapt a population to adjust its population-level phenology in response to annual variability in spring temperatures without requiring genetic change in reaction thresholds.

Demand for cage birds is highly prevalent and increasing across Indonesia, as wild bird populations across Asia decline. To find ways to reduce demand, it is important to understand the motivations and psychographic drivers to keep (or not keep) birds, and how demographic characteristics and public attitudes influence such decisions. Based on surveys with over 3,000 people, we found few people citing health, sanitary, or welfare concerns as reasons for not keeping birds, whereas most people started keeping birds to enjoy their beauty or song, or to keep up with peers. Pet‐keepers (“Hobbyists”) commonly started doing so opportunistically; song contest participants (“Contestants”) and breeders and trainers (“Breeders”) did so for financial gain. Bird‐keepers and non‐bird‐keepers disagreed on birds' environmental importance, longevity in captivity, and endangerment by trade. Older respondents were less concerned that keeping birds endangers them and few felt birds to be an important part of the environment. Hobbyists were least likely to consider wild bird population health a major concern. Efforts to dissuade potential bird‐keepers should focus on public concern for the environment and the threat bird‐keeping poses to wild populations. The importance of peer pressure among bird‐keepers presents an opportunity to promote sustainable bird‐keeping activities among key groups.

The importance of evolutionary conservation – how understanding evolutionary forces can help guide conservation decisions – is widely recognized. However, the historical demography of many endangered species is unknown, despite the fact that this can have important implications for contemporary ecological processes and for extinction risk. Here, we reconstruct the population history of the Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis) – an ecological model species. By the 1960s, this species was on the brink of extinction, but its previous history is unknown. We used DNA samples from contemporary and museum specimens spanning 140 years to reconstruct bottleneck history. We found a 25% reduction in genetic diversity between museum and contemporary populations, and strong genetic structure. Simulations indicate that the Seychelles warbler was bottlenecked from a large population, with an ancestral Ne of several thousands falling to <50 within the last century. Such a rapid decline, due to anthropogenic factors, has important implications for extinction risk in the Seychelles warbler, and our results will inform conservation practices. Reconstructing the population history of this species also allows us to better understand patterns of genetic diversity, inbreeding and promiscuity in the contemporary populations. Our approaches can be applied across species to test ecological hypotheses and inform conservation.

The Black-cheeked Lovebird Agapornis nigrigenis has a highly restricted range in dry south-western Zambia, where its distribution is clumped and localised in association with mopane Colophospermum mopane woodland and permanent water pools. Fieldwork and monitoring over 30 months between December 2018 and October 2021 established that the lovebirds’ usage of pools for drinking was higher towards the centre of the bird’s distribution and influenced by the pools’ proximity to mopane woodlands, surrounding tree cover, and level of human activity. Of the four pool types available for use by lovebirds (i.e. mopane, grassland, river, and artificial), mopane and grassland pools were disproportionally susceptible to drying out in the dry season, hence showed greater variation in numbers of visiting birds compared with the other two types. Lovebirds showed a preference for pools with a perimeter of <50 m and tended to avoid those with a perimeter >100 m, consistent with a positive association between pool size and human activity. Convergence between humans and lovebirds in dependence on water resources and mopane woodland points to the need to find ways to overcome potential conflicts. Such ways include creating small, shallow-sided, undisturbed pools in or near mopane woodland, extending water retention in existing mopane pools, and enhancing the capacity of artificial pools to meet the needs of the lovebirds.