Birds of Singapore
by the Bird Society of Singapore
A recent study estimates that one-third of Singapore’s resident bird species have gone extinct over the last 200 years, including several previously undetected losses. This post explores the new methodology used to quantify these extinctions and provides an extensively vetted list of the country’s historical and current breeding birds.
There is an interesting paper recently published in the prestigious journal Conservation Biology by members of two National University of Singapore (NUS) labs titled “A robust non-parametric method for quantifying undetected extinctions” that came to our attention. In it, they presented a novel method of estimating undetected extinction, i.e. the type of extinction events that may have taken place without humans taking note of them. They applied this new method to all 195 breeding bird species ever recorded in Singapore over the last 200 years. Of this number, 58 (~30%) are known to have gone extinct. They project probably another ~10 species have gone extinct without ever being discovered, thereby providing a more realistic extinction rate at ~33%. The extinction of one-third of our resident bird species over the years represent a significant loss of our biodiversity. The authors also project based on the data from Singapore, an additional 14-16% loss of bird species in the region by the year 2100 with current deforestation rate. Some of our favorite birds are already extinct in Singapore. More will join their ranks without further conservation efforts, and it won’t be long before they are gone for good in the region as well. One of the interesting side product of this new study is a new, extensively vetted list of all breeding birds ever recorded in Singapore based on thorough literature reviews going back to the 1800s. Reproduced with permission at the bottom of this post is a table containing the bird list of current and extinct species. This data represent a best effort by the authors at the time of publication. This website will use it as a starting point to update its own list in the future. Photos of some of the birds that have gone extinct in Singapore Scarlet-rumped Trogon at Panti Forest. Although not listed as one of the known extinct birds, this is one plausible candidate for the undetected extinctions described in the paper as it is commonly found in nearby Panti Forest, Malaysia Garnet Pitta at Taman Negara, Malaysia Female Diard’s Trogon at Panti Forest A pair of Orange-backed Woodpeckers at Panti Forest Rufous-backed Dwarf Kingfisher from Bali Black-and-yellow Broadbill at Panti Forest Reference: Chisholm R.A., Giam X., Sadanandan K.R., Fung T. & Rheindt F.E. (2016). A robust non-parametric method for quantifying undetected extinctions. Conservation Biology. Table A1. Resident native birds of Singapore recorded since 1819. This list excludes species that were introduced by humans or for which evidence for breeding activity is too sparse. Some species for which breeding evidence is doubtful are included in the table but were excluded from the analysis described in the paper. Note: the table is reproduced from Chisholm et al. (2016). With a data collection period ending in 2014, a “last record” in 2014 does not indicate that the species has gone extinct in 2014, as it is simply the end of the data collection period. Common Name Name First record Last record Blue-breasted Quail Coturnix chinensis chinensis 1819 2014 Red Junglefowl Gallus gallus spadiceus 1985 2014 Lesser Whistling-duck Dendrocygna javanica 1977 2014 Barred Buttonquail Turnix suscitator atrogularis 1819 2014 Sunda Pygmy Woodpecker Dendrocopos moluccensis moluccensis 1819 2014 Rufous Woodpecker Celeus brachyurus squamigularis 1819 2014 White-bellied Woodpecker Dryocopus javensis javensis 1819 2001 Banded Woodpecker Picus miniaceus malaccensis 1819 2014 Crimson-winged Woodpecker Picus puniceus continentis 1819 1949 Checker-throated Woodpecker Picus mentalis humii 1819 1949 Laced Woodpecker Picus vittatus vittatus 1819 2014 Olive-backed Woodpecker Dinopium rafflesii rafflesii 1819 1949 Common Flameback Dinopium javanese javanese 1819 2014 Greater Flameback Chrysocolaptes lucidus chersoneus 1819 1908 Orange-backed Woodpecker Reinwardtipicus validus xanthopygius 1819 1920 Buff-rumped Woodpecker Meiglyptes tristis grammithora 1819 1949 Buff-necked Woodpecker Meiglyptes tukki tukki 1819 1949 Great Slaty Woodpecker Mulleripicus pulverulentus 1819 1949 Grey-and-Buff Woodpecker Hemicircus concretus sordidus 1819 1949 Lineated Barbet Megalaima lineata hodgsoni 1996 2014 Red-crowned Barbet Megalaima rafflesii malayensis 1819 2014 Blue-eared Barbet Magalaima australis duvaucelii 1819 1949 Coppersmith Barbet Magalaima haemacephala indica 1957 2014 Brown Barbet Calorhamphus fuliginosus 1819 1949 Oriental Pied Hornbill Anthracoceros albirostris convexus 1819 2014 Red-naped Trogon Harpactes kasumba kasumba 1819 1921 Diard’s Trogon Harpactes diardii sumatranus 1819 1921 Dollarbird Eurystomus orientalis orientalis 1819 2014 Blue-eared Kingfisher Alcedo meninting verreauxi 1819 2014 Stork-billed Kingfisher Halcyon capensis malaccensis 1819 2014 White-throated Kingfisher Halcyon smyrnensis fusca 1819 2014 Collared Kingfisher Todiramphus chloris humii 1819 2014 Rufous-backed Kingfisher Ceyx erithacus rufidorsa 1819 1949 Ruddy Kingfisher Halcyon...