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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/06/going-extinct-right-under-our-noses-the-quiet-plight-of-australias-rarest-bird-of-prey>
"Setting up a base in the tallest tree, usually around a creek somewhere, the
red goshawk will hunt beneath the canopy – chasing down speed demons such as
the rainbow lorikeet and plucking them out of the air.
The soft thrum of their deep, powerful, metre-wide wings can be heard from the
ground as they accelerate, before they silently swoop and bank like some
feathered fighter jet.
But the spectacle of the red goshawk – a bird that exists nowhere else on Earth
– is disappearing from Australia’s landscape.
“It’s gone extinct all across eastern Australia, right under our noses,” says
Chris MacColl, a researcher at the University of Queensland and BirdLife
Australia.
“It was still frequently seen in northern New South Wales and south-east
Queensland up to the 2000s but after that, the records completely disappear. It
has fallen off the map.”
Despite the bird being first described in 1801, they were never a common sight
and, until recently, relatively little was known about the habits of
Australia’s rarest bird of prey. Most birdwatchers have never seen one.
Now scientists such as MacColl are in a race to understand just how many of the
birds might be left so they can refine their plans to save them."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
