The article title is very misleading. After stating at the beginning of the article that Spix's macaw is extinct, then going on to list a handful of other recently extinct birds, it says at the bottom that 60-80 Spix's macaws exist in captivity. If they exist in captivity then how can they be extinct? The article should have stated at the beginning and in the title that they are likely extinct in the wild, an important distinction. But of course that is not as dramatic a headline and they want people to click on their article (an assumption on my part, but I think it's true).
Yeah , not to mention there are almost double the high figure of spix macaws as they said Dozens of last blue macaws to be reintroduced to Brazil | The Express Tribune
The article as a whole is full of mistakes. Just as an example, the paragraph which lists those other species and their dates of extinction has them incorrect. The New Caledonian Lorikeet (in the article noted as being last recorded in 1987) is known for certain only from two specimens from the mid-1800s. The Javan Lapwing (1994 in the article) hasn't been recorded since about 1940. For the Glaucous Macaw (1998 in the article), the IUCN says there have been only two credible reports from the 20th century, from 1951 and the early 1960s. Birdlife really does post some dodgy articles, sadly. This is the original paper, but I haven't read it (it is just the abstract): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320718308012
The official date of an extinction is 50 years after the last official record, so this matches well with the lapwing and macaw dates in the article. For the lorikeet the time lapse is much bigger so maybe they just had a typo or something.
ACTP published an overview and update about the programm and the current status of the Spix macaw-population on Facebook : Association for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots e.V. As recently reported by various news agencies around the world, the Spix’s Macaw is among the 8 avian species to be officially declared extinct (in the wild) by Birdlife International this century. ... Whilst this report has made headlines around the world over the past 2 weeks, this is in fact not news to anyone with knowledge of this beautiful blue macaw, of which the last confirmed wild sighting was back in the year 2000. For more than a decade now ACTP’s focus has been on the de-extinction of this incredible species and we are extremely excited to be fast approaching the return of the first captive bred Spix’s Macaws earmarked for release back to their homeland of Brazil. In 2019 ACTP will move the first group to the purpose built release and research facility in the Caatinga, where they will be acclimatised to the natural foods and local conditions prior to release, marking the first major step towards achieving the shared goal of all partners in the Spix’s Macaw De-Extinction Project, to reintroduce an extinct parrot back into the wild for the first time in history. Article continued on the link provided earlier.
