Bird 101 – Stresemann’s Bristlefront

Today I felt like it was time to introduce you to what may well be the rarest bird on Earth, Stresemann’s Bristlefront (Merulaxis stresemanni)

They’re a sweet little long-tailed, ground dwelling bird. The males are all grey, while the females have a splash of cinnamon on their under side. They make their home in the Amazon Rainforest. You may remember that pesky place, it’s just so damned flammable these days, it’s like you turn around for one second and, boom, it’s on fire again.

Stresemann’s Bristlefront is so named because of a little tuft of feathers it has on the front of its face (and also presumably for some chap named Stresemann).

The Bristlefront is famous for being one of the most illusive birds. It was only discovered in the 1960s and then promptly vanished until 1995. In that time people thought it had actually gone extinct, but no no, it was just hiding. The 1995 survey only found 15 birds, and since then their numbers have only dwindled further.

Almost nothing is known about them, because no one has ever had a good chance to study them. In 2018 an extensive search was carried out of the one place in Brazil where they were known to live, and just a single female was found. From then until October this year none were sighted, until again they found a single female, which researchers suspect is the same bird. 

It’s now believed that she is the last of her species. Something which is technically known as an Endling. 

This one is particularly sad. It is unlike some other famously rare birds, like Spix’s Macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii) or the Guam Kingfisher (Todiramphus cinnamominus), where we have small captive breeding populations of them. There is still hope they could be saved. For Stresemann’s Bristlefront, the game is already over. There are no others. She’s still out there, alone, for now, but there can be no coming back for this species.

She’s already lost to us.

To end on a more lighthearted note, the Guardian’s Bird of the Year competition is back on, so make sure you get in and vote for your favourite bird. If you’d like to make a symbolic gesture against Adani, the Black-throated Finch (Poephila cincta) is currently doing very well in the polls.

But of course, Bird of the Week neither endorses nor recognises the Guardian’s arrogant assertion to proclaim a bird for this year, or any other year for that matter. There is only one bird of the year, and that’s the bird this publication will announce on December 31, as is tradition. So make sure you tune in for that not to be missed New Year’s Eve event.  

03/11/2019