Five bird species not seen in the wild for between 11 and 20 years were documented in 2025, cutting the global lost birds list from 163 to 1
From the article:
In February 2026, two French birders in Chad photographed a rusty bush lark. The species had not been recorded in 94 years. It was the most dramatic entry in a year of rediscoveries that have brought the Lost Birds List from 163 species down to 120 since 2022. The list tracks birds not photographed, recorded, or genetically detected for at least a decade. It is maintained by the Search for Lost Birds project, a partnership between the American Bird Conservancy, Re:wild, and BirdLife International. John Mittermeier, the project’s director, describes it as an “early warning system” for species that might “potentially slip between the cracks” of slower, more formal conservation assessments. All five 2025 rediscoveries came from Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and all were made by individual birders and photographers, not formal research teams.
