Blue-eyed Ground Dove
(Columbina cyanopis)
Sixteen. When ornithologist Rafael Bessa rediscovered the Blue-eyed Ground-Dove in a patch of Cerrado savanna in Brazil in 2015, only sixteen individuals were believed to be left.
This stunning cinnamon-colored bird with iridescent blue wing spots, and blue eyes, was most likely already an uncommon inhabitant of the southwest Brazilian Cerrado a century ago, but habitat modification since then has certainly contributed to its decline.
In 2018 conservationists rapidly worked to protect all known sites for the species through the establishment of the 1,465-acre Blue-eyed Ground-Dove Reserve, with surrounding habitat protected by the newly declared Botumirim State Park.
Despite these efforts, this species remains Critically Endangered as one of the world’s most rare birds.
Hope for the Blue-eyed Ground-Dove was bolstered in 2023 when two young doves were successfully raised to adulthood in Parque das Aves in Brazil. This achievement was made possible with the help of an artificial equivalent to crop milk–a mammalian milk-like substance produced by pigeons and doves to nourish their young for the first few days after hatching. Developed by conservation biologist Joe Wood at the Toledo Zoo and his partners, the artificial crop milk was successfully dispensed with a pipette to the newly hatched Ground-Doves. This, in combination with protecting the young from predators, proved successful.
Parque das Aves is now continuing this combination to grow a captive population that will hopefully help secure the survival of the species.