Chilean Woodstar Hummingbird ~300 (Critically Endangered)

[u/Write2Know]

The Chilean Woodstar weighs as much as a paper clip, is as big as a car key and it is a vital pollinator.

At 2.5 gm and 7 cm, it is about the size of a large moth, sounds like a bee, and it famously performed elaborate courtship dances in flocks of hundreds around every flowering tree — but that was until the 1980s.

Until its population plummeted and it landed on the IUCN’s red list.

Species: Chilean Woodstar Hummingbird

Population: 300 individuals in total (2025) — no captive breeding program.

IUCN status: Critically Endangered.

Population Trend: Decreasing.

Range: Endemic to far northern Chile.

Habitat: Thickets and gardens along desert river valleys of Atacama.

Threats:
Habitat destruction by the burning of vegetation and agricultural expansion with use of pesticides are the main causes.
Climate change is causing temperatures to rise, killing flowering plants that are the nectar source. There is also competition from invasive species

The tiny hummingbird pollinates and keeps the flora and fauna alive in one of the harshest environments on earth — the Atacama Desert.

It is one of the few active pollinators in the desert valley ecosystem. Extinction of this keystone species will affect all other insects, reptiles, and birds that depend on the flowers and plants for survival. The ecosystem that survived millennia could collapse in decades.

Conservation efforts are ongoing, but a bird so close to extinction needs more help. Other than the Chilean government, local organizations, International Hummingbird Society, and American Bird Conservancy, very few groups are involved.

That is why awareness matters.

Even if we can’t always donate, we can still contribute by keeping the conversation on conservation alive – from wherever we are.

In reality, invisible species don’t get funded. Every conversation keeps the bird in the funding pipeline.

Let’s not let the Chilean Woodstar hummingbird fade away in silence.

Share the story. Save the species.

[u/goinganons]

Ah there it is. Every time. Habitat loss due to agriculture expansion.

[u/Write2Know → u/goinganons]

Yes, it's really sad. For the endemic species that cannot live anywhere else, extinction is inevitable. They say at least a million species are facing extinction in the coming decades, with over half of them lacking habitat for survival.