The Monserrat Oriole

globally threatened birds ar to be found almost all over the world. In 92% ( 220 ) of all the countries has at least one species that are among the globally threatened species. But small Islands got a huge part of the globally threatened species. small Islands has often been quite secluded protected area and many birds and animals living on small Islands ha got big problems for different reasons. Several species has become extinct because they never have had any enemies before mankind brought diferent kinds of animals to the Island.

On small Islands many species also has habitats that are very limited and therefore extra vulnerable for destruction of their habitats. For some species this has happened cause of mankind and other times it's due to natural reasons. But there is also some that gets inflicted by both human and natural reasons. I will now present you for the Monserrat oriole.

The small Island of Monserrat is located in the Caribbean and belongs to the Lesser Antilles. It's size is just 102 square kilometers. In 1995 the volcano Soufrière Hills started with eruptions in 1995 and has continued on and off ever since. The capital Plymouth was evacuated in 1997 and has been closed ever since.

 On this small Island the Monserrat Oriole lives. It's a forest species and it prefers to live in the moist  forest, and tends to l\have it's territories in the  higher altitude forests, and is absent from areas of very dry forest. The oriole is sedentary and eats most of all insect. Also a part of it's diet is fruit, but not so much about this has been known.

The Oriole has always had habitat that has been very  limited in range, at the most at approximately 50 square kilometers. The population was divided in three subpopulations, in the Centre, Soufrière and South Soufrière hills. Historically heavy deforestation ruined a lot of it's habitat. In the second half of the 20th century the forest grew up again, but this was probably  not the kind of forest the oriole prefers. In 1995 the Soufrière Hills Volcano erupted and it has continued to erupt on and off at least until 2006. The eruptions has been thought to have killed approx half of it's population between 1997 and 2001. After that there has been some signs that the population has been recovering a little, and the latest estimates suggests that there now can be between 260 and 1,190 pairs.

Even though there is some evidence that the population has increased a little the last years the dangers for the Monserrat Oriole is definetly not over. New eruptions from the volcano, the forests never getting back to it's former state is among the main threats. It's also nest predation, both from rats and from the Pearly-eyed Thrashers. Other threats are drought, as it was in 2001 and 2003, or excessive rainfalls. As the Oriole is living in the higher altitudes of the forests in Monserrat the oriole is also suceptible for climate change.

Is anything being done to help the oriole? Absolutely. The main area for the rest of the oriole has now been made into a protected area. It has also been made a species action plan, with programmes to monitor the population.  Further more there has been eradication of the pigs in the forest and a rat control program. And now they have had success with breeding nirds in captivity so they have the chance to release birds to bolster the wild population if it's not probable.

We cross our fingers for the future of the Montserrat Oriole, a really cute and colourful bird striving to survive