Blue-eyed Ground-dove

The Blue-eyed Ground-dove, or Columbina cyanopis, is a critically endangered bird endemic to Brazil. Once thought to have gone extinct in 1941, the Blue-eyed ground-dove was found once again by Rafael Bessa. While doing field work, Bessa heard a strange bird call. He then recorded it and played it back until he could see the singer. Bessa took pictures and was able to match it’s bright blue eyes and blue spots on tawny feathers with descriptions of the Blue-eyed ground-dove. Scientists rushed to study these birds and find out their status, unfortunately finding only 16-20 birds that were still in danger of extinction. They also found that these were split into three groups about a mile apart, and that the Blue-eyed ground-dove lives in the tropical savanna or cerrado in eastern Brazil and eats seeds and insects. These birds rarely leave the ground cover and avoid flying. Finding the Blue-eyed ground-dove was an amazing rediscovery!

There are only about 16 Blue-eyed ground-doves left, so what we do next will affect whether they survive in the future or become extinct once again. The main problem facing this precarious population of little birds is habitat loss. The Blue-eyed ground-dove lives in a very small section of the cerrado. Unfortunately, the cerrado is an extremely threatened biome, especially by the industrial agriculture industry that is causing vegetation loss and deforestation. Another problem facing the conservationists trying to help this bird was that the part of the cerrado where Blue-eyed ground-doves live is private land, which was soon to be used for mining iron ore. Luckily several organizations raised enough money to, in 2018, buy the land where this rare bird lives, and it is now called the Blue-eyed Ground-dove Nature Reserve. A few months later another 89,000 acres near this land, called Espinhaco Ridge, was recognized as protected and created the Botumirim State Park. Amazingly, this endangered bird’s population may be increasing, as 5 of their nests were recently recorded. Although the Blue-eyed ground-dove is not out of danger yet, hopefully one day these birds will be a conservation success story.