Many plants depend on birds to disperse their seeds and sometimes a seed has to be digested and deposited by a bird before it will germinate. Birds are also important to agricultural crops as they remove insect pests.
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ lists over 10,000 bird species and of these, 132 are Extinct. These extinctions have mostly been caused by human behavior through hunting, habitat changes and the introduction of alien species such as rats and cats. Birds are important for maintaining healthy ecosystems so it is vital that they are protected and conserved.
