Curious1
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It comes as no surprise that the most common bird in the world is a breed of domesticated chicken, the Red Junglefowl. In 2003, it was estimated that the population of the scientifically named Gallus gallus domesticus was just over 24 billion. That’s four chickens for every person on Earth, plus a few to spare. There are a few wild Red Junglefowl, named Gallus gallus, without the domesticus, but their numbers are insignificant compared with the domesticated variety, and they are both considered of the same species. Traditionally, it is thought that the chicken was domesticated in India, but new evidence shows points to chickens being first domesticated in Vietnam over 10,000 years ago. From Vietnam and India, chickens made their way to Asia Minor and then to Greece. From Greece, they were spread to Europe and the rest of the known world. European settlers then brought them to the Americas. Because of the low cost of chickens, they are eaten more than any other land animal and this is the major reason why they are the most common bird.
As for totally wild birds, the most common is the European House Sparrow, Passer domesticus. European House Sparrows can be found on 2/3 of the planet’s land. Like the chicken, this bird was spread throughout the world by European settlers. The Red-billed Quelea, Quelea quelea, runs a close second for most common wild bird. Although they are only found in one specific region of Africa, their population is 1.5 billion strong.
On the other side of the coin, the rarest bird in the world is difficult to determine because we cannot accurately count their numbers. Several species of birds are so rare that they have only been spotted a handful of times, years apart. Among the birds in the rarest category are Sudanese Red Sea Cliff Swallow, last seen in 1984 and the Orange-necked Partridge, which was last spotted in 1927. Scientific evidence points to these species still existing, but we do not know for sure.
 Posted 5406 day ago
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