Their songs will never sound again
Transcript: A list of bird species made extinct since 1900
Crested shelduck, extinct. Mariana mallard, extinct. Pink headed duck, extinct. Colombian grebe, extinct.
Alaotra grebe, extinct. Atitlán grebe, Rennell Island teal, Borrero's cinnamon teal, Niceforo's pin tail, extinct.
Javan lap wing, extinct.
South Island snipe, extinct. Eskimo curlew, extinct. Slender-billed curlew, gone. Canary Islands oystercatcher, gone.
Jamaica petrel, Guadalupe storm petrel, gone.
Passenger pigeon, Choiseul pigeon, Negros spotted imperial pigeon, Spotted imperial pigeon, Norfolk pigeon, Madeiran wood pigeon, Ogasawara Japanese wood pigeon, Purple-winged ground dove, Thick-billed ground dove, Red-moustached fruit dove, Negros fruit dove, Amirante turtle dove, Vella Lavella ground dove, White headed Polynesian ground dove. Ehbon crimson-crowned fruit dove, extinct.
Are you bored? Or does this list of names shame you? Grieve you? Wake you up?
New Caledonian lorry keet, gone. Paradise parrot, gone. Glaucous macaw, gone. Carolina parakeet, gone. Sinú parakeet, gone.
Pernambuco pygmy owl, Laughing owl, Siau scops owl, Sulu reddish scops owl, Virgin Islands screech owl, Socorro elf owl, Antiguan burrowing owl, Cave-nesting masked owl, Peleng masked owl, Samar bay owl. All gone.
Imperial woodpecker, Ivory-billed woodpecker, The American ivory-billed woodpecker, The Cuban ivory-billed woodpecker, Javan buff-rumped woodpecker, Cebu white-bellied woodpecker, Cryptic treehunter, Alagoas foliage-gleaner. Lyall's wren. San Benedicto rock wren. Guadalupe Bewick's wren. San Clemente Bewick's wren. Daito wren. Guadeloupe house wren. Bush wren. Macdonnell Ranges grasswren. Thick-billed grass wren. Large-tailed grass wren.
5 species of Hawaiian honey eaters.
Gone.
Tasman starling, Lord Howe starling, Pohnpei starling, Norfolk starling.
Cebu bar-bellied cuckoo-shrike. Cebu blackish cuckoo-shrike. Marinduque blackish cuckoo-shrike.
Car Nicobar sparrow hawk. Volcano Islands peregrine falcon. Nightingale reed warbler, extinct.
Aguiguan reed warbler, gone. Moorea reed warbler, gone. Pagan reed warbler, gone. Garrett's reed warbler, gone. Aldabra brush warbler, Semper's warbler, Vanua Levu long-legged warbler, Fayyum warbler, Guam bridled white-eye, Mukojima white-eye, Bonin white-eye, Vanderbilt's babbler, Burmese Jerdon's babbler, Black-browed babbler.
Do you hear me humanity?
Sangihe dwarf kingfisher, Rarotonga kingfisher, Mangareva kingfisher, Guam kingfisher, Javan blue-banded kingfisher, Sakarha pygmy kingfisher, Rück's blue flycatcher.
That is the first one hundred done.
Tonkean henna-tailed jungle flycatcher, Guam flycatcher, Grenadan Youler's flycatcher, San Cristóbal vermilion flycatcher, Chatham fernbird, Tana River cisticola, Marianne white-eye, Lord Howe white-eye, White-chested white-eye, Greater crested coua cuckoo, Bahia rufous-vented ground cuckoo.
Their songs will never sound again. Their songs will never sound again.
Grand Cayman thrush, Norfolk thrush, Maré thrush, Lord Howe thrush, TLifou thrush, Peleng red-and-black thrush, Kibale black-eared ground thrush, Choiseul russet-tailed thrush, Saint Lucia forest thrush,
Maupiti monarch, Nuku Hiva monarch, Negros celestial monarch, Hiva Oa monarch, Ua Pou monarch.
Barbados scaly-breasted thrasher, Cozumel thrasher, Southern star finch, San Benito house finch, Rufus-crowned sparrow, Santa Barbara song sparrow, Dusky seaside sparrow, Grand Cayman oriole, Cebu dark-throated oriole, Dark-throated oriole, New Providence yellow throat, Bahama yellow throat
Can you see how beautiful they were?
Gonâve western chat-tanager, Samaná eastern chat-tanager, Northern stripe-crowned spine tail, Northern giant ant pitta, Agiant ant pitta, Antioquia brown-banded ant pitta, White-eyed river martin, gone. Red Sea cliff swallow, no more.
And we know them only by their names.
Lord Howe fantail, Guam rufous fantail, Goldman's yellow rail, Macquarie rail, Peruvian rail, Western Lewin's rail, Assumption white-throated rail, Bar-winged rail, Wake Island rail, extinct.
Did you believe you owned them, you men who named them? You men who came and wrote them down, who wrote the earth and owned it.
And broke it with your incomprehensible greed.
Lord Howe boo book, Miravalles hummingbird, Challenger's lory, Todd's jacamar, Alejandro Selkirk firecrown, Luzon Whitehead's swiftlet, Chapin's crombec, Luzon sarus crane, Chatham bellbird, Western Turner's eremo mela,
You damned sons of Adam, who named the world in your image and named the free beings, and the rivers. and the mountains that you had to conquer. As you had to conquer everything because simple love was not ever enough.
And the only respect you valued was white man to white man.
And only if they rich enough.
Tasmanian emu, Moroccan guineafowl, Andalusian hemipode, New Caledonia painted buttonquail, Saint Kitts bullfinch,
North Island piopio, South Island piopio, South Island wattlebird, Mount Lofty spotted quail-thrush, Norfolk long-tailed triller, Bogotá bearded tachuri, Peruvian scale-throated earthcreeper, Western rufous bristlebird, King Island brown thornbill, Tiwi Island hooded robin, Sumatra blue-wattled bulbul, Northern white-winged apalis, Bornean Baillon's crake, Moroccan bustard,
Fayyum sandgrouse, Basilan bleeding-heart, Huahine Polynesian warbler, Daito varied tit, Chinijo stonechat, Pines solitaire, Hawaiian honeycreeper, Lanaʻi hookbill, Maui nukupuʻu, Guadalupe ruby-crowned kinglet ,Jamaican golden swallow, Eastern Canary Islands chiffchaff, Cyprus dipper, Sicilian black francolin, New Mexico sharp-tailed grouse, New Caledonian white-throated nightjar.
Bougainville black-faced pitta, gone.
Choiseul black-faced pitta, gone.
Ticao hornbill, gone.
Botero white-mantled barbet, gone.
Western pied curra wong, gone.
Pied raven, gone.
Babar stubtail, gone.
Laysan millerbird, gone.
Āmaui, gone.
Sangir red and blue lory, gone.
Siquijor colasisi, gone.
Culebra amazon, gone.
Black-lored waxbill, gone.
Slender-billed grackle, gone. Bonin grosbeak, gone. Black mamo, gone. Turquoise-throated puff leg, gone. Maros cicada bird, gone. Heath hen. Gone.
All gone, silent, extinct.
It took just 120 years.
You have less than ten years left.
Was it worth it, humanity?