Threatened songbird makes a comeback

“The black robin, a threatened songbird recently named New Zealand’s Bird of the Year, has rebounded from a population of just five birds in 1980 to around 350 in 2025. Conservationists rescued the species by moving the remaining birds to a predator-free island and using another species, the Chatham Island tomtit, to foster their eggs, allowing the robins to lay multiple clutches each breeding season,” reports Human Progress.

The Guardian explains: “The black robin, once the world’s rarest bird before an extraordinary conservation project brought it back from brink of extinction, has been crowned New Zealand’s bird of the year, after record voter turnout. The tiny bird is found only in the Chatham Islands,” 500 miles east of most of New Zealand. “The birds are also fondly known as the “goth” of New Zealand’s bird world, for its striking black plumage, black eyes and a little pointy black beak.”

“Habitat loss and introduced pests devastated its population, and by the 1970s there were five birds left. Just one breeding pair remained: Old Blue, the matriarch, and Old Yellow. A breeding program that pioneered using other species to foster parent the robins’ eggs proved a success, and its numbers have steadily climbed to 350 adult birds.”

The wood stork is no longer endangered in America, where there are now more than 10,000 nesting pairs of them.

The crested ibis has recovered from the brink of extinction, with 10,000 of them in China, and they just returned to Japan.