About 50 billion Birds Available in Land – Almost six per person. This comes from the extrapolation of Australian scientists. According to this, there are only a few species that contain more than a billion specimens, while many species are rare or very rare.
The study conducted by the team led by William Cornwell of the University of New South Wales (UNSW) at Sydney It is presented in the Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences. The researchers provided an estimate of the global abundance of 9,700 bird species – about 92 percent of all known species.
The remaining eight percent was not included in the estimate due to the uncertain data status. However, since they are all rare species, their number hardly adds to the total number of birds, the researchers explain.
According to their calculations, there are only four types, of which there are more than a billion individuals:
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The Star (Sturnus vulgaris; 1.3 billion)
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Ring-beaked gull (Larus delawarensis; 1.2 billion)
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Barn swallow (Hirundo rustica; 1.1 billion).
Counting should serve to conserve the species
There are only about 100 samples of Turnax melanogaster left. About twelve percent of the species have a population size of less than 5,000 animals, including the extremely rare tern amber (Thalasseus bernsteini), the long-bellied browbird (Atrichornis clamosus), which is thought to be extinct, and the flightless drumstick (Habroptila wallacii) . Birds of the kiwi families (3000) and claws of the pedestal (154,000) are also rare.
The researchers write that measuring the abundance of a species is a critical first step in preserving it. “By correctly calculating what is present, we learn which species are vulnerable to infection and we can see how these patterns change over time,” explains lead author Corey Callahan of the University of New South Wales. If the population decreases, it could be a warning signal of the health of the ecosystem in which this species occurs.
