Aviora archive

Birds Through Time

Extinction, recovery and the numbers behind them.

Birds have shared 150 million years with the Earth. Since 1500, at least 164 species have been documented lost — and thanks to conservation, dozens more that would otherwise have vanished still exist.

Global endangered snapshot

Among the Most Threatened Today

Ranked from the current verified database — Critically Endangered first, then smallest verified population range. This is not a global definitive ranking; the licensed global catalog import is still in progress.

No threatened species in the current database yet.

Ranking method: IUCN category (EW → CR → EN → VU) first, then smallest verified population range. Species with no verified population are shown as “Verification required” and ranked last within their category. Not a global definitive ranking.

Numbers with sources

Source verification required.

Documented extinctions by era

Count of species in our verified archive by best-supported extinction year. Not an exhaustive list — see methodology.

Documented extinction causes

No cause categories have been extracted from the current verified archive yet. The archive is incomplete.

Timeline (1500 – today)

    Lost birds

    Conservation changed the outcome

    Methodology & sources

    Definitions

    Extinct: no reasonable doubt the last individual has died (IUCN EX).

    Prevented extinction: the counterfactual estimate that a species would have gone extinct without documented conservation action (Bolam et al. 2021).

    Classifications and populations change as new evidence appears. Always follow the source link for the current assessment.