During a recent conservation mission in Colombia, ornithologist Yurgen Vega photographed a Sabrewing Santa Marta, a species of large hummingbird thought to be extinct since 2010, reports The Guardian Friday. This endemic bird of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain is indeed critically endangered, according to IUCN criteria, due to the progressive destruction of its habitat razed to build agricultural land, specifies Slate.
Third time in 76 years
In total, this is even only the third time that this species has been documented. This hummingbird had been recorded for the first time in 1946 and had not been seen again until 2010 in the neighboring reserve of El Dorado. This observation therefore greatly surprised Yurgen Vega. “I couldn’t believe he was waiting there for me to pull out my camera and start taking pictures,” he said. John C. Mittermeier, the director of endangered species awareness at the American Bird Conservancy, even went so far as to compare this recording to “the sight of a ghost”.
With this extremely rare sighting, scientists therefore hope that local communities and environmental authorities will mobilize to create a research and conservation program in the region, the mountain range of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta having 24 unique bird species. in the world. So many species threatened by the increasingly intensive agricultural exploitation in this forest, of which only 15% would have remained intact.