BirdLife’s Global Species Programme continually collates up-to-date information on Globally Threatened Birds from the published literature and from a worldwide network of experts. This is used to evaluate the status of each species using the IUCN Red List categories and criteria.
New information on the population or range size and trends of a species, or the threats impacting it, may indicate that a species warrants uplisting or downlisting to higher or lower categories of threat. In such cases, BirdLife’s web-based Globally Threatened Bird Forums are used to advertise the proposed change and to solicit relevant information or comment from a wide network of experts and organisations.
In these discussion forums, topics describe the current status of particular species, new information that has become available, the proposed new Red List category that this information suggest is appropriate, and a request for comments or further input.
The purpose of the forums is to provide an opportunity for both professional and amateur birdwatchers and conservationists to contribute information on Globally Threatened Birds relevant to the assessment of their threat status and their conservation. Contributors can also suggest new species whose status may need reviewing.
Anyone wishing to receive email alerts regarding BirdLife’s Globally Threatened Bird Forums can sign up using the form on the sidebar or using the pop up. You will then be able to receive updates regarding these Forums and the Red List Decisions that will be put forward to the IUCN regarding birds. You will have the option to remove yourself from the list by contacting a member of BirdLife’s Red List team directly.
The forums enable users to provide new information, and to view the information and comment provided by other contributors. ‘Postings’ (e.g. ‘New survey results’) are linked by subject in ‘Topics’ (e.g. ‘Spoon-billed Sandpiper – uplist to Critically Endangered ?’), which are grouped in ‘Forums’ (e.g. ‘Threatened Asian Birds’). You can either read and contribute postings on the website, or receive and reply to postings entirely through email.
All messages are ‘moderated’ by the forum moderator to help guide the process most efficiently and to ensure that inappropriate material (e.g. ‘spam’/junk messages) is excluded from the discussion.
For discussion of general birding issues or on birds of a particular region other than Globally Threatened Birds, other bird discussion forums/e-lists may be more appropriate.
Each year, the revisions that have been decided upon from input through the forums will be submitted to the IUCN Red List. New categories become official when the Red List is updated and released later in the year. Contributors who supply information that is used will be explicitly acknowledged.
An archive of discussions from previous years is viewable here.
Guidelines for using Globally Threatened Bird Forums
Please restrict the content of messages to information or appropriate opinion on Globally Threatened Birds or species that are candidates for threatened status. In order to make appropriate and valuable contributions it is important to familiarise yourself with the type of information being sought, and the detail relevant to evaluation of extinction risk. To view examples, download species factsheets from BirdLife’s World Bird Database (found in the Data Zone). It is not necessary to understand the IUCN Red List criteria and categories, but it may help to look at them.
The following rules apply to the forums:
- Please respect the right of others to express their opinions
- Messages containing slanderous, defamatory, false, or abusive comments will be removed
- No advertising is allowed. Where possible, spam or junk messages will be excluded by the moderator
- Moderators reserve the right to exclude any contributors who do not follow these guidelines
- Please note that BirdLife International is not responsible for comments or opinions expressed in these Forums.