A review by Peterson (2006) claims that a new species-level taxonomy leads to improved conservation insights for Philippine birds. However, it does not report how borderline taxonomic cases were dealt with, how many taxa and specimens were examined, how closely the evaluations were made, why four key museums were omitted from the survey, and why certain taxa were omitted despite their presence in museums visited. It provides no conclusive or accurate diagnoses in more than 40% of taxa on the first two pages of the Appendix, and overlooks another 16% that have already achieved species-level recognition. It unjustifiably asserts that work was hampered by lack of material, and inappropriately calls for the collection of a highly threatened taxon. It employs one unstable diagnostic method but preaches the virtue of another, entirely different but equally unstable. All these shortcomings undermine confidence in the paper's rigour; and reference to the recent conservation literature shows that in any case no new conservation insights have resulted.

Collar (2007) attacked a recent paper of mine (Peterson 2006) on a number of grounds; he raised some valid points, and detected some errors in detail. Here, I respond to his criticisms, clarify misunderstandings, and urge the field to move beyond the status quo to consider the need for new taxonomic viewpoints to benefit bird conservation globally.

Ingestion of foreign anthropogenic material, here called junk, has been documented in many avian taxa but has become especially problematic in some Old World Gyps vulture populations within the last 30 years. Here, we document the effects of ingested junk on a reintroduced population of the Critically Endangered California Condor Gymnogyps californianus in southern California, U.S.A. Of 13 breeding attempts to date (2001–2005), only one has resulted in successful fledging. Of nests where either the nest substrate was sifted (n = 10) or nestlings (n = 8) were examined, all but one held junk. Nine nestlings hatched in the wild between 2002 and 2005; of these six died at or near nests and two were removed from the wild for health reasons. Four dead nestlings and two removed from the wild held substantial quantities of junk. In two cases, junk ingestion was determined to be the cause of death. Five of six dead nestlings had elevated hepatic copper levels (150–531 ppm dry weight) although the significance of this, if any, remains undetermined. In comparison with historic condor nests (n = 69), junk was more prevalent and of greater size and quantity in reintroduced condor nests. To date, junk ingestion has been the primary cause of nest failure in the reintroduced condor population and threatens the reestablishment of a viable breeding population in southern California.

Following the catastrophic decline in populations of three species of South Asian Gyps vultures, we conducted a study to explore socio-economic variables that could facilitate conservation efforts. A questionnaire survey was carried out in 103 randomly selected households in the Rampur valley, one of the Important Bird Areas of Nepal, during 2004. Among respondents, 38% were female, 62% male, 28% illiterate and 72% literate. Households belonged to three ethno-religious groups (Hindu castes, ethnic groups and Muslim) and 96% of households had some parcels of registered land to farm. About 90% of households reared one or more types of livestock while the mean Livestock Size Unit was 3.32 per household. Livestock diseases and ailments were common and usually treated with diclofenac. Livestock carcass disposal practices were favourable to vultures because 60% of households dumped carcasses in open fields. Diclofenac is lethal to vultures; 3% of diclofenac-contaminated carcasses were available annually. The majority (78%) of respondents had favourable attitudes towards the concept of vulture conservation. Diclofenac contamination and the destruction of nesting habitat were two major threats to vultures. Ensuring healthy food through economic incentives, inculcating new values through environmental education and soliciting popular participation for habitat conservation are recommended.

Our study focused on the Taita White-eye Zosterops silvanus, one of three bird species endemic to the Taita Hill forests, south-east Kenya. Formerly considered Critically Endangered, Taita White-eye has been down-listed to Endangered following the findings of this study. Between November 1998 and September 1999 we counted this species along line transects to establish their current population status and distribution in its entire range. White-eye censuses were conducted in nine forest fragments of the Taita Hills and the virtually undisturbed Mt Kasigau forest. The total global population of Taita White-eyes was estimated to be c. 7,100 birds. Mt Kasigau was shown to be the species' main stronghold, maintaining a very high density (26 birds ha−1) and holding 80% (5,600 individuals) of the entire population. In the Taita Hills forests, densities were consistently higher in the small isolated fragments than in the large ones, though the former held only a small population (3% of total). At Mt Sagala, a large isolated block where indigenous trees have been largely replaced with exotic plantation, this species was not encountered. We found no evidence of interchange between the White-eye populations on Mt Kasigau and the Taita Hills forests, probably because of the separation by a low-altitude, dry woodland habitat barrier. While prioritization for conservation action should focus more on the Taita Hills forest fragments, Mt Kasigau should be treated as fragile ecosystem which holds a huge, apparently insular population of Taita White-eyes.

Understanding the status of fragmented populations and predicting their fate is an increasingly important part of bird conservation. Population viability analysis (PVA) can help in this process and is widely used for assessing the extinction risk faced by threatened species and for finding the key factors affecting population status and survival prospects. From 1982 to 2004, 14 scientists studied the population of the globally threatened Cabot's Tragopan Tragopan caboti in Wuyanling National Natural Reserve (WNNR), south-east China and collected life-history data on the population. Using VORTEX, we analysed the viability of the population in the reserve and this predicted that the population size will increase for the next 50 years and will then show a very slight decline for the next 50 years. The loss of heterozygosity is predicted to be 14%, suggesting that the population may not be viable in the long term. Sensitivity analyses showed that nest loss is the most important factor affecting population size and the survival probability of the population, which is supported by field studies. Though the new evidence shows that Cabot's Tragopan can build nests in spruce forest successfully, broad-leaf forest is still necessary for them for foraging, especially at some times of the year. The simulation also shows that the probability of survival and the size of the population will decrease markedly if the extent of suitable habitat is reduced even relatively slowly (such as 0.1% per year). Overall, we conclude that the PVA has provided very informative guidance to future management and research on Cabot's Tragopan at Wuyanling National Nature Reserve.

We assessed the conservation status of the Chilean Woodstar Eulidia yarrellii, a small hummingbird endemic to a few desert valleys of northern Chile and southern Peru. Although no population studies had been conducted, this rare species was presumed to have undergone a severe population decline during the past decades. Fieldwork in Chile produced a population estimate for September 2003 of 1,539 individuals (929–2,287; 90% CI), located in just two valleys: Azapa and Vitor. There was no evidence of stable populations elsewhere. Our observations tend to confirm the hypothesis of a past decline and evidence points to three main factors driving that trend: (1) Most natural habitat has disappeared and the species relies mostly on artificial resources for feeding and nesting. (2) The start of heavy use of pesticides in the Azapa valley in the 1960s in order to control the Mediterranean fruit fly and other crop pests coincides with the last reports describing the species as abundant. (3) The irruption in the last two decades of the Peruvian Sheartail Thaumastura cora has apparently exerted serious competition pressure on the species. These findings support the classification of the species as globally Endangered. We describe the main lines of action of the recently approved Recovery Plan for the Chilean Woodstar.

Genetic structure among five populations of Elliot's Pheasant sampled from five different provinces – Anhui (AH), Zhejiang (ZJ), Fujian (FJ), Hunan (HN) and Guizhou (GZ) – was assayed using mitochondrial control region sequences from 33 individuals. Using AMOVA, we found a high level of haplotype variation within populations, and a degree of genetic structure among groups (GZ population relative to all others pooled). However, this difference was not statistically significant and little geographical structure was indicated among the remaining populations. Furthermore, using a rooted maximum parsimony tree, we found the sequences of the GZ population were largely grouped in their own branch, while sequences of the other four populations were interspersed among branches. We identified a lower level of gene flow between the GZ population and all others, a finding supported by significant FST values. Conversely, we identified a larger amount of gene flow between the remaining four populations, particularly among the three easternmost populations (AH, ZJ and FJ). Given our results, further study should be focused on the GZ population and on management units for the purpose of maintaining the genetic structure of the species in the west of China.