In May 1996 the authors carried out surveys of Harwood's Francolin Francolinus harwoodi, a threatened and restricted-range species, within the upper reaches of the Abay Basin, North Shoa Administrative Region, Ethiopia. The species is known from a small range in the Abay Basin but has not been reliably recorded away from a single site in the Jema Valley since 1930. Harwood's Francolin was found in the Jema Valley and valleys of adjacent river systems and, according to local reports, its range extends northwards into Southern Wello Administrative Region, a northerly extension of its previously known range. The species was found to be locally abundant, with transect counts giving a maximum density estimate of 92 birds/km2.

Typha beds had been considered a crucial element in the species's habitat, but our observations suggest that although Typha beds are sometimes used they are not an essential requirement. The main threat to the species's survival appears to be from clearance of thorn scrub rather than from clearance of Typha beds. Additional threats come from hunting for food and for sale at market, and collection of eggs.

Observations of courtship and mating in May and local reports of eggs in October indicate an earlier start to the breeding season than previously reported (first egg dates in December). The species may have two broods or have an extended, non-synchronous breeding season, timed to coincide with the rainy season and early dry season (May-December). Birds were observed to be highly gregarious and observations of courtship suggest that the species may be polygamous.

Recommendations are given for the conservation of the species, including further survey work and collaboration with local communities to identify and protect key areas of habitat.

Bekoff and Elzanowski (1997) (hereafter “BE”) have criticized my paper on the continuing importance of collecting scientific specimens of birds, focusing primarily on a brief section concerning “moral objections” to scientific collecting. BE seem to state either that it is acceptable to kill birds as long as every effort is made to reduce suffering, or that it is never acceptable to kill birds because suffering is unavoidable, depending on which portion of their essay is regarded as paramount. If their message is the former, then I and other museum scientists concur completely, because we already do this (contrary to the implications of BE). If their message is the latter, then we have an impasse, with two different sets of personal moral standards. Although virtually every sentence by BE can be criticized, I restrict my rebuttal to the “top 10” most-revealing statements.

The Ultramarine Lory (Ultramarine Lorikeet, Marquesas Lorikeet, Pihiti) Vini ultramarina is one of the most threatened insular Lory species. Endemic to the Marquesas Islands, where it probably once ranged throughout the archipelago, it has been nearly extirpated from all but the tiny island of Ua Huka. Given the vulnerability of a single population inhabiting one small island, and the decline of the species in recent years, establishment of the Ultramarine Lory on another less disturbed island within its historic range has been proposed as a conservation strategy. This paper describes a 1991 survey evaluating the status of the Ultramarine Lory in the Marquesas Islands, and three subsequent translocations of birds from the island of Ua Huka to the island of Fatu Hiva. Twenty-nine birds were relocated during the period from 1992 to 1994 at the request of the Delegation de L'Environnement, French Polynesia. A preliminary survey, prior to the third translocation, indicates that previously transferred birds are surviving and may be reproducing; an intensive survey is planned in 1997.

The Brown-banded Antpitta was last recorded in the Central Andes of Colombia in 1942 but a population of the species has been rediscovered in the Ucumarí Regional Park.

Grallaria milleri era una especie conocida de solo diez especímenes colectados en dos localidades de la vertiente occidental de la Cordillera Central de Colombia. Nueve de los especímenes fueron colectados en la cuenca del Río Quindío, a elevaciones entre 2, 745 y 3,140 m, en 1911 y 1942. El décimo especimen fue colectado en 1918, a 3 km de la ciudad de Manizales. Durante trabajo ornitológico realizado en el Parque Regional Ucumarí desde 1994, individuos de esta especie han sido capturados en redes y observados, lo cual revela la presencia de una población en este sitio intermedio entre las dos localidades originales. El Parque Ucumarí tiene 4,240 ha y protege la cuenca alta del Río Otún entre 1,800 y 2,600 m. G. milleri ha sido registrada solamente en un estrecho rango entre 2,400 y 2,600 m, en donde se han contado 93 individuos a lo largo de 6.3 km de transectos en tres tipos de hábitat: rastrojos de regenración temprana, plantaciones de aliso (Alnus acuminata) y bosques de regeneratión de treinta años. En esta localidad G. milleri es simpátrica con otras cuatro especies de Grallaria (squamigera, nuchalis, ruficapilla y rufocinerea) y con Grallaricula nana, por lo cual Ucumarí es un sitio de gran interés para la conservatión de este grupo de aves neotropicales.

To produce conservation indices from bird community data, with the aim of identifying and comparing areas of regional conservation concern, we selected bird community samples randomly over a large study area, without including habitat features a priori in the sampling procedure. Subsequently, we subjected the samples to a cluster analysis to identify a posteriori bird communities to be indexed together with their associated habitat and distribution/abundance on a regional scale. We identified 15 bird community types and were able to characterize each of them by a community conservation index (CCI) taking into account three different components of rarity: habitat selectivity, geographical distribution, and abundance. A cluster of four communities was associated with lowland farmland and woodland; another cluster of five was found at higher average altitudes and degree of urbanization; a third one of six showed a montane distribution. This third cluster showed much higher CCI values in comparison with the first two suggesting that the index here proposed is very sensitive to a high community selectivity and a restricted distribution/abundance.

In 1986 a single Norfolk Island Boobook Owl Ninox novaeseelandiae undulata remained. As part of a re-establishment programme, two male New Zealand Moreporks N. n. novaeseelandiae were introduced, one of which survived to pair with the female in the wild and breed successfully. By 1995 the population numbered 12 or 13 individuals of which seven were second generation (F2). However, there were only two breeding pairs. As the 11 hybrids could not be sexed using morphometrics we developed a molecular method based on a recently described avian polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based sexing technique. The population was found to contain six females and five males. A scarcity of mature males was established as the main factor slowing the recovery effort.

During a tourist cruise with M.V. Academik Shokalski from Cairns (Australia) to Chuuk (Micronesia) between 20 March and 3 April 1996 we visited a number of seabird islands in Micronesia described by Nelson (1978). On these and other islands visited, we asked local people for further information on breeding seabirds. After the cruise H.M. visited Ant Atoll at Pohnpei.

This note presents the results. Time did not allow us to undertake real counts so we provide only rough estimates of numbers of breeding pairs, in orders of magnitude.

The Houbara Bustard Chlamydotis undulata is prominent in avian conservation because of its high value as the traditional quarry of falconers in Arabia and western Asia; such hunting has often been blamed for severely reducing population levels especially in Arabia, Pakistan and Morocco. This paper reviews current knowledge of the world status of the Houbara Bustard in each of the 31 range states where it has occurred within the last 10 years. On the basis of the evidence available, the overall population is estimated to be between 49,000 and 62,000 birds, made up of 700–750 birds in the Canary Islands, around 10,000 in Africa, and the remainder in the Middle East and Asia (especially Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan). Numbers have apparently declined greatly during this century because of agricultural intensification and other land use changes, often exacerbated by hunting and trapping. Evaluation of the population status and trends against the current Red List criteria of IUCN indicate that the Canary Islands subspecies C. u. fuertaventurae is Vulnerable, while the subspecies C. u. undulata and C. u. macqueenii (as well as the whole species population) could probably also qualify for listing as Vulnerable but it is more appropriate to consider them “Near threatened” for the time being.

In 1991 a survey was conducted in the Marquesas Islands to determine the current range and population size of the Ultramarine Lory Vini ultramarina. A total of 313 birds were counted, restricted to one island, Ua Huka. A translocation program was initiated to capture and relocate birds to a less disturbed island. Fatu Hiva, an island within the historical range of the species, was chosen to establish a second population. This island still supports suitable habitat and does not have a resident population of Rattus rattus, which may have contributed to the decline of the species on Nuka Hiva and Ua Pou. Increased agriculture, grazing herbivores, bees, and banana plant disease may have also contributed to the decline.

South Island Robins Petroica australis australis were monitored through two different brodifacoum (Talon 20 P, 20 ppm) control operations targeting stoats Mustela erminea and ship rats Rattus rattus in a Nothofagus forest. Repeated observations of banded and radio-tagged territorial adult Robins were used to monitor survival from 6 to 8 weeks after poisoning. Where poison was deployed in bait feeders, 96.7% (29/30) of marked Robins definitely survived, whilst where poison was freely broadcast, only 52.2% (12/23) of marked Robins definitely survived. At the non-treatment site 85.7% (18/21) of marked Robins definitely survived. This study demonstrates that individual Robins are at risk from poisoning from exposed brodifacoum on the forest floor and therefore, probably from aerial application of brodifacoum. Further research is required to determine whether the benefit to Robin populations from successful predator control outweighs the loss of some Robins from poisoning. Conservation managers must take a wide view of the ecological community impacts when controlling introduced mammalian predators.

Since our paper on the efficiency and biases of 20-species lists (Poulsen et al. 1997) went to press we have recognized a further two biases in the method, after discussions with C. Rahbek. We remarked in our paper that the abundance curves were behaving rather strangely and that “the importance of these phenomena needs to be investigated in more detail”. The behaviour may be due to the method setting constraints on the highest possible frequency, namely the number of times a species occurs in 20-species lists. This could affect the calculation of the expected abundances and hence the a-index. Another bias must be the indirect way of determining the relative abundances, ignoring the true number of individuals. A species with many individuals will be given the same relative abundance as a species with very few individuals if both species occur in the same number of 20-species lists. We do not know the importance of these constraints but recommend that the method is not used until the results of a current computer modelling study examining its efficiency (S. Herzog and M. Kessler pers. comm.) are known.

The two species of Hylorchilus wrens are endemic to Mexico and were considered “Vulnerable” by Collar et al. (1994). They are restricted to humid tropical forest growing over karstic terrain, but large areas of apparently suitable habitat exist where they have not yet been recorded. I explored areas of potentially suitable habitat as well as a few localities where they were already known to occur in order to gather new data for a re-evaluation of the conservation status of these species. My records, together with six localities where these species have been reported by others in the past few years, add 15 localities to the 12 listed by Collar et al. (1992). Based on this and other new information, I recommend “Endangered” status for Nava's Wren, H. navai, based on criterion B of Mace-Lande (extent of occurence <5000 km2) and on the strongly fragmented state of its habitat. I would retain “Vulnerable” status for Sumichrast's Wren, H. sumichrasti, owing to its slightly larger range which is still relatively unfragmented and its apparently larger population density