New Britain Sparrowhawk Accipiter brachyurus

New Britain Sparrowhawk Accipiter brachyurus

Vulnerable

Location: Papua New Guinea

The New Britain Sparrowhawk is a very poorly-known forest species. Although there are some lowland records (Coates 1985, K. D. Bishop in litt. 1987, I. Burrows in litt. 1994, J. Diamond in litt.1999), most records are from montane forest to 1,800 m (Buchanan et al. 2008, Dutson 2011), including records at 1,200-1,800 m on New Ireland (B. Beehler in litt. 1997, Coates 1985, G. Dutson pers. obs. 1997-1998, Beehler and Alonso 2001, Dutson 2011). Populations are threatened by the extensive logging of lowland and hill forests throughout their range. New Britain alone accounted for approximately half of Papua New Guinea’s timber exports (Buchanan et al. 2008).

Lowland forest clearance for conversion to oil palm plantations has been intense in recent decades in both New Britain and New Ireland (Swartzendruber 1993, Stattersfield et al. 1998, Buchanan et al. 2008). On New Britain about 17.5% of habitat within this species’ altitudinal range was cleared in three generations or 15 years (Buchanan et al. 2008).

IUCN Red List

Less detailed analysis is available for later years but about 2.2% of forest was lost plus 5.2% degraded across New Britain between 2002 and 2014 (Bryan and Shearman 2015). It is inferred that forest loss and degradation has slowed but the species’ rate of decline is precautionary retained at the rate measured by Buchanan et al. (2008) pending better data. Despite relatively limited survey effort in the region, this remains a notably rare species.

The New Britain Sparrowhawk is a regal bird of prey in #PapuaNewGuinea vulnerable on @IUCNredlist by #palmoil #deforestation conversion to #palmoil plantations. No known conservation is in place. Make art about them and #Boycott4Wildlife

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Further Information

BirdLife International. 2018. Accipiter brachyurus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018: e.T22695605A131936960. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22695605A131936960.en. Downloaded on 03 February 2021.

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