A classic example of what an invasive species is capable of resides on the island of Guam…when one species of snake made its way onto to the island via airplane, practically all of the island’s birds went extinct in a matter of a few decades. Excuse the sudden and random departure from the typical self-aggrandizing and narcissistic ornithophilic content. That will return next month. MORE

Featured image is a Guam Rail, a Pacific species of rail extinct in the wild. One of the less well remembered awful things that happened in the Second World War (a six year period of history filled with an uncountable number of awful things) is that war’s direct role in the extinction of two species of rail. MORE

Guam Rail Gallirallus owstoni. Photo copyright The Smithsonian’s National Zoo, taken from the Guam Rail page. . The Guam Rail Gallirallus owstoni is, as most of you will know and the remainder will have guessed, native to Guam… in the South Pacific… a long, long way from Puerto Rico and the V.I. It persists in captivity at a breeding facility on Guam and in a number of American zoos. So wither the Guam Rail now? MORE

To try to manage the invasive Brown Tree Snake on Guam, which has forced many of Guam’s bird species to extinction and as a way to try to keep the snakes from Hawaii. Conservation Guam ReptilesIn what must be one of the most unusual conservation strategies ever, dead mice laced with acetaminophen, trailing streamers meant to catch on tree branches, will be dropped one-by-one, by hand, from helicopters. MORE

And the worst: Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arkansas, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, South Dakota, Wyoming You can check out the whole report on their web site. The ALDF has released a report on how different states' animal protection laws stack up. Among the best: California, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Oregon. MORE

territories are Guam (pop. I recently asked whether Puerto Rico should be part of the American Birding Association’s ABA Area. That post led to a spirited discussion on the ABA Facebook page. I will suggest an answer to the question: this post makes the argument that both Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands should be added to the ABA Area. # # #. Now that Hawaii is in the ABA Area , the next additions should be Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI). MORE

The public at large didn’t pay so much attention to our little screw-up on Guam and the whole steady drumbeat of disaster sounding from Hawaii, to the Grand Cayman Thrush or the Imperial Woodpecker or other birds going extinct in remote regions where a mere ‘hasn’t been reported since…’ could drag through the years without any formal punctuation. MORE

Guam Flycatcher. Passenger Pigeon. Kioea. Broad-billed Parrot. Alaotra Grebe. Saint Helena Cuckoo. Grand Cayman Thrush. Ascencion Crake. Kakawahie. What do the eight birds above have in common? They are all extinct. They all went extinct since 1500 and they are only eight of the nearly two hundred species that have blinked out since then. Of those nearly two hundred there are very few that people would recognize. Most existed on small islands far from major population centers. MORE