Kakapo (Strigops habroptilus). The world's heaviest parrot, the New Zealand kakapo is also unusual in being nocturnal and flightless

For the lizards of east Africa, who the secretary bird dispatches by stamping on their heads and swallowing them whole, it is excellent news. Equally, the monkeys of the Philippines will be pleased to hear that their native eagle — which menaces primates over an area the size of Oxford just to raise one chick — is in difficulties.

Everyone else should be worried.

Scientists from London Zoo and Yale University have released a list of 100 birds that are not only endangered, but whose loss would also represent a terrible blow to genetic diversity.

Recognising that with limited funding, conservation is not so much about saving every species as identifying which are the most important, the compilers of the Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered