British-based BirdLife International is calling on environmental groups, corporations and individuals to contribute the $37.8 million needed for what it calls the Species Champions initiative to save the birds, including 17 facing extinction in the United States. The money will be used to protect habitats, raise awareness and reduce invasive species that often eat bird eggs and compete for food.

The campaign comes as the number of bird extinctions is rising due to poaching, habitat loss and overdevelopment. In the last three decades, 21 species have been lost, including the Hawaiian honeycreeper Po'o-uli and the Spixs Macaw from Brazil, BirdLife said.

"This is an enormous challenge, but one we are fully committed to achieving in our efforts to save the world's birds from extinction," the group's chief executive, Mike Rands, said.

The first birds to benefit would be the Bengal Florican in Cambodia, the Belding's Yellowthroat in Mexico, Djibouti Francolin in Djibouti and Restinga Antwren from Brazil. All have seen their numbers drop from a few thousand to a few hundred and their ranges limited to a few isolated locations.

The initiative includes creating a conservation plan in Mexico, regenerating forests in Djibouti, establishing a protected area in Brazil and restoring grasslands in Cambodia, where less than a thousand of the Bengal Florican are found.

All the birds targeted in the campaign are on the World Conservation Union's Red List of Threatened Species, which are defined as those on the brink of extinction.

Among them are the Black Stilt, a New Zealand shorebird whose numbers have been reduced to a handful, the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker rediscovered recently in Arkansas and the California Condor, which is just now being slowly reintroduced into the wild.

Of the 17 birds in the United States, 12 are from Hawai'i, BirdLife said. Facing threats from food shortages, hurricanes and feral goats, birds like the Maui Parrotbill have not been seen for years.

———

On the Web: