How many distinct bird species do we have today?
It’s difficult to state with total confidence, as with any other group of wildlife, because there’s always the potential that there are bird species that we haven’t discovered yet. Every year, new animal species are discovered.
Around the world, there are an estimated 5,000 different varieties of perching birds (passerines).
If all sorts of birds are counted, the lists used by bird watchers and scientists estimate that there are between 9,000 and 10,000 distinct species of birds around the globe.
The richness of birds is vastly underappreciated, and these figures are based on the “biological species concept,” which classifies species based on what animals may reproduce together.
According to recent research, this figure might nearly quadruple to 18,000 species.
The study concentrated on “hidden” avian diversity, which refers to birds that appear similar to one another or were supposed to interbreed but are, in reality, distinct species.
How Many Bird Species Are There In The World?
A wide variety of bird species may be found all around the world.
However, if you travel to the tropics or island nations, you will not only discover a diverse range of species, but you may also encounter many that are not found anywhere else.
Endangered species are ones that can only be found in a single place or nation. In that sense, they are geographically distinct.
This makes them fascinating to study, but it also puts them at risk of extinction. If a species is extinct in one area, it is extinct everywhere.
According to recent estimates, the world’s bird population ranges between 50 billion to 430 billion.
The following are the world’s most common bird species:
- House Sparrow (1.6 billion)
- European Starling (1.3 billion)
- Ring-billed Gulls (1.2 billion)
- Barn Swallows (1.1 billion)
- Glaucous Gulls (949 million)
- Alder Flycatchers (896 million)
How Many Bird Species Are On The Verge of Extinction?
According to this study, around 1,481 species are considered globally threatened. This covers species that are severely endangered or vulnerable.
Despite the big number, each category has fewer species than the previous year.
There are two less severely endangered species, one less endangered species, and two less vulnerable species, all of which are somewhat better than in 2020.
How many Bird Species have died out?
Extinction has always been a part of the planet’s evolutionary history. The majority of bird species that have ever lived on Earth will have become extinct.
Most people, though, are curious about how many species have gone extinct in recent history. How many species have been wiped off by modern humans?
The number of extinctions during the last five centuries has been assessed by the IUCN Red List.
Unfortunately, we don’t know everything about all of the world’s species throughout this time span, so it’s possible that some will have gone extinct without even realizing it. This is most likely an underestimation.
How many Bird Species are there in the United Kingdom?
The British Ornithologists Union (BOU) maintains a list of 574 distinct species of birds that have been observed in the wild in Britain.
This list does, however, include species that have only been spotted a few times, such as the long-billed murrelet.
Some of the bird species on this list will be there because they were blown off their migration path by severe winds, for example.
The Wren is one of the most frequent birds in the United Kingdom.
How many Bird Species are there in the United States?
There are 1120 distinct bird species identified in the 50 states of the United States of America. Some of these birds, like those in the UK, will be introduced, either accidentally or on purpose, or will go extinct.
How many Bird Species are there in Australia?
Australia is home to 830 distinct bird species, accounting for approximately one-tenth of the world’s 10,000 live bird species.
Around 45 percent of these species are found nowhere else in the globe, contributing to the diversity and uniqueness of the bird population there.
Conclusion
Although we cannot tell for definite how many bird species exist on the planet, our best estimation is that there are roughly 10,000 species.
Several studies disagree on the actual number of species, although virtually all estimate about 10,000.
According to research from 2021, more countries are taking avian diversity seriously.
As we discovered, the situation of many species is improving, giving hope that avian variety will continue to increase — not that we need more birds. After all, there are billions of them all over the place!
At last, I hope you enjoyed this article and it was informative enough for you. Thank You For Reading!
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