EXPLORING NATURE: RARE BIRDS & ANIMALS

What are the rarest and most endangered birds and animals?

Let’s start in Texas, where the rarest birds would probably include the green-breasted mango hummingbird and the red-billed pigeon. At one time, the whooping crane was also close to extinction in Texas, with only 15 birds in 1941, but thanks to a captive breeding program and creation of a special refuge just for them, this noble species has made a solid comeback. Today, there are some 650 birds at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.

Other Texas rarities include the cackling goose, limpkin and purple gallinule.

In all of America, avian rarities include the California condor, light-footed clapper rail and San Clemente loggerhead shrike. Also listed is the ivory-billed woodpecker, but I really believe this bird has been extinct for some time and is no longer around.

I am told the rarest bird in the world is the Bahama nuthatch. It went missing in 2018, but there have been recent sightings, so there is still hope.

There’s also hope for the California condor, which was once extinct in the wild, but has been re-introduced after a captive breeding program. I saw two condors on a trip to the Grand Canyon in Arizona a few years ago and the park ranger said they were hoping for condor babies in due time.

The rarest animal in the world? Probably the vaquita, a porpoise that swims around down Mexico way in the Gulf off Baja California. There are about 18 remaining in the world.

Other rare animals include the amur leopard, Darwin fox, whiterumped vulture, Saola spider monkey and the northern hairynosed wombat.

Rare and unusual birds I have been privileged to see include the Kakapo parrot in New Zealand, and the kiwi, a flightless bird that I had only seen on shoe polish cans before seeing one in captivity on that same trip to New Zealand.

I have also seen the whooping crane and am delighted people cared enough about this majestic bird to create a special refuge just to help it survive. Sometimes people really do nice things.