Slender-billed curlew goes extinct

The Hellenic Ornithological Society on Wednesday announced the extinction of a migratory bird, the slender-billed curlew, that had found a safe haven in northern Greece's wetlands on its treacherous annual journey from Europe to Africa.

According to the society, the species' presence in Greece was first reported on the island of Corfu in 1857 and was documented another 104 times until 1999, mostly in the Evros and Axios deltas and in Porto Lagos in northern Greece.

"A slender-billed curlew observed in Messolonghi on May 3, 1999 (by J.Y. Guillosson) marks the last recorded sighting of the species in Greece," it said.

The loss of the slender-billed curlew is the first known global bird extinction from mainland Europe, North Africa and West Asia, according to the expert publication, BirdLife International.