Killing Two Birds........?

A model suggests that human activities have currently driven circa 12% of the world's bird species to extinction. This is twice the previous estimate of almost 1,500 bird species being 'helped' to die out since the Late Pleistocene (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/19/human-driven-extincition-of-bird-species-twice-as-high-as-thought-study-says-aoe). The study, took New Zealand as its starting point. New Zealand had the advantages of a) being a remote island and b) having a very complete bird record, based on both fossils and sightings. The model predicted how many bird species might have lived on an island of this size. When the number of known extinctions and remaining living birds were subtracted from this, what's left was the number of 'undiscovered extinctions'. This was then applied globally. It's an interesting idea but New Zealand also seems, due to a combination of circumstances, to have been a 'hot spot' for bird extinctions. Perhaps the new figure is an over-estimate? Either way, humans are a major extinction event!