ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE

PROTECTION STATUS: Not listed; candidate only

PETITIONED: 1981 (International Council for Bird Preservation)

RANGE: Yanbaru, a small area of forested woodlands in the northern mountainous region of the island of Okinawa, Japan

THREATS: Destruction of forest habitat in Okinawa’s northern jungles, where a significant amount of prime remaining habitat is threatened by a joint U.S. and Japanese military proposal to construct additional helicopter training landing areas in Yanbaru, including roads and infrastructure; also road construction, clear-cutting, agriculture, and development

POPULATION TREND: Only a single, small declining population remains — the breeding population was estimated at 75 birds in the early 1990s, with a total population of only 100 to 500 woodpeckers.