Fishery observers recorded incidental capture of seabirds during 785 days on Japanese bluefin tuna longline vessels around New Zealand between April and August each year, 1988-1992. High numbers of albatrosses Diomedea spp. and petrels Procellaria spp. were caught on longline hooks during setting and drowned. Twelve seabird taxa were recorded, six of them breeding only in New Zealand. Most were breeding adults, except for Grey-headed and Black-browed Albatrosses. No bias in sex ratio was evident except for Grey Petrels, of which nearly all were female. Winter-breeding species were most often caught. Birds were not caught randomly, but in a highly aggregated fashion suggestive of complex behavioural interactions with the fishery. Most albatrosses were caught by day in the south whereas most petrels were caught by night north-east of New Zealand. Highest capture rates occurred at dawn and dusk off north-east New Zealand in June-August. Very large catches at specific sites contributed disproportionately to the overall catch rate. The estimated minimum number of total seabirds caught in New Zealand waters declined from 3,652 in 1988 to 360 in 1992, probably as a result of mitigation measures introduced progressively by the industry and by government regulation. Use of tori lines to prevent birds seizing baits had an effect, as did setting in total darkness in the south. Considerably more work needs to be done on the development of improved mitigation measures. Greater observer coverage is required to measure accurately the mortality of individual seabird species on tuna longlines throughout the Southern Ocean and to determine the effectiveness of mitigation measures.

Originally described last century from New Mexico, U.S.A., Worthen's Sparrow Spizella wortheni has subsequently been recorded from just eight states in Mexico centred on the interior of the north-east of the country. Records during the last 30 years originate from just Coahuila and Nuevo León, with those during the last 10 years exclusively from two small areas in south-eastern Coahuila and western Nuevo León: it appears that this poorly known species has been suffering a range contraction owing to the widespread destruction of its shrubby (mesquite or yucca-juniper) grassland habitat. Little detail is known of its specific requirements, local movements, or even its distribution, and it is proposed that Worthen's Sparrow be formally recognized as a threatened species.

Originalmente descrito el siglo pasado a partir de ejemplares procedentes de Nuevo Méjico, U.S.A., Spizella wortheni ha sido posteriormente citado en ocho estados mejicanos, todos en el interior del noreste del país. Durante los últimos 30 años, todas las citas provienen de Coahuila y Nuevo León, y durante los últimos 10 exclusivamente de dos pequeñas áreas del sureste de Coahuila y del oeste de Nuevo León: parece que el área de distribution de esta escasamente conocida especie ha ido reduciéndose debido a una generalizada destructión de su hábitat de matorral (mescal o yuca-enebro) pastizal. Se conoce muy poco de sus requerimientos específicos, movimientos locales, o incluso su distributión, y se propone que Spizella wortheni sea formalmente reconocido como una especie amenazada.

Searches were made for the Colombian Grebe Podiceps andinus in 1981 in the wetlands in the Eastern Andes of Colombia. The studies also included surveys of other waterbirds and recorded the general conditions of these wetlands, once the stronghold for waterbirds in the northern Andes. The Colombian Grebe was apparently last seen in 1977 in Lake Tota, and is probably extinct, although a flock may have been moving around outside Lake Tota and could have settled outside the former breeding area. The primary reason for the decline must be draining of wetlands and eutrophication and siltation which destroyed the open submergent Potamogeton vegetation, where this grebe may have been feeding on a large diversity of arthropods. Introduction of exotic fish and hunting may also have played a role.

Durante 1981 se han realizado varias expedidones en busca de Podiceps andinus en las zonas húmedas de los Andes Orientales de Colombia. Durante estos estudios también se censaron otras aves acuáticas y se tomaron notas sobre el estado general de éstas zonas húmedas, que en el pasado fueron el principal enclave para las aves acuáticas en los Andes del Norte. Aparentemente Podiceps andinus fué visto por última vez en 1977 en el Lago Tota, y está probablemente extinguido, aunque podría haber un bando en las inmediaciones de dicho lago que se hay a establecido fuera de la antigua área de cría. La razón fundamental del declive debe ser el drenaje de las zonas húmedas y la eutrofización y salinización que ha destruido la vegetatión sumergida de Potamogeton, donde ésta especie se alimentaba de una gran variedad de artrópodos. La introducción de peces exóticos y la caza pueden haber influido también.

The Cebu Flowerpecker Dicaeum quadricolor, considered extinct since 1906, was rediscovered in a very small (<2 km2) patch of largely degraded forest near Tabunan, Cebu island, Philippines, in 1992. This patch also holds at least four of the five other bird forms endemic to Cebu that are known to be extant. There appears to be no other forest with any closed canopy elsewhere on the island, and the Tabunan site, although within the Central Cebu National Park, could disappear within five years (through clearance for firewood by local villagers) without immediate intervention.

The marshes of the Hongyuan-Ruoergai Plateau in northern Sichuan were visited between 27 May and 10 June 1991 to determine the status there of Black-necked Cranes Grus nigricollis, to investigate reports of threats to their habitat from peat-mining, and to consider options for a protected area for the cranes. Almost 80,000 ha of wetlands in Ruoergai County were surveyed, as well as some of the contiguous wetlands in northern Hongyuan County; 240 Black-necked Cranes and 24 active nests were located. Between 600 and 900 cranes were estimated to be present on the plateau, making this the most important breeding and summering area for the species hitherto known. Neither peatmining nor hunting was judged to pose a threat to the cranes. The principal threat is drainage of habitat for pastureland: overgrazing by domestic livestock is a serious problem on the grasslands, and some drainage of bogs has already occurred in an attempt to increase the area of grazing land. The establishment of a large “crane conservation area” has been proposed, in which there would be no restrictions on the traditional activities of the local tribespeople, but where large-scale drainage, peat-mining and other development activities likely to have a negative impact on the wetlands would be prohibited.