In 2025, birders and scientists found five “lost” bird species that had gone undocumented for a decade or more. As Mongabay’s Spoorthy Raman reports, these findings have helped reduce the total number on the global “Lost Birds List” from 163 in 2022 to 120 today. To be classified as “lost,” a species must not have been recorded through photographs or audio or documented genetically in the wild for at least 10 years, as defined by a 2022 study. The list is maintained by the Search for Lost Birds project, a partnership between the NGOs American Bird Conservancy, Re:wild and BirdLife International. Project director John Mittermeier describes the list as an “early warning system” to identify at-risk species before they vanish forever. The five birds confirmed alive through photographs in 2025 are all endemic to islands in Southeast Asia and Oceania. These include the Bismarck kingfisher (Ceyx websteri) found in Papua New Guinea after 13 years, Biak myzomela (Myzomela rubrobrunnea) documented in Indonesian Papua for the first time in 20 years, Broad-billed fairywren (Chenorhamphus grayi) recorded in Indonesian Papua after 11 years, and the Sulu cuckooshrike (Coracina guillemardi) and rufous-breasted blue flycatcher (Cyornis camarinensis) found in the Philippines after 18 and 17 years, respectively. While these “rediscoveries” spark hope, six new species will join the Lost Birds list in 2026, including the Mindoro bleeding-heart (Gallicolumba platenae) and Mindoro imperial pigeon (Ducula mindorensis). And some birds on the list are never seen or heard again, reflecting the extinction crisis. In 2025, the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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