Bahama Nuthatch

One of the rarest birds in the world is the Bahama Nuthatch. The Bahamas' Grand Bahama island's pineyards are home to a unique species of nuthatch known as the Bahama nuthatch.

Officially, it is regarded as highly endangered and is almost certainly gone. Its extremely small range makes it extremely vulnerable to habitat loss and degradation, fires, and hurricane damage. Nearly all of Grand Bahama's pine forest was cleared for development in the 1950s, but some areas have subsequently recovered. Surveys conducted in 1969 and 1978 found that the species was widespread throughout the area. However, in-depth studies conducted in 1993 only found 2 individuals, showing that the nuthatch has drastically decreased since then for unexplained reasons.

Since the year 2000, all observations have taken place within or close to the Lucaya Estates private land area. A 2007 survey only discovered only 23 people, although a 2004 estimate of 1,800 people were excessively optimistic, as the authors of the study acknowledged. Grand Bahama was severely damaged by Hurricane Matthew in 2016, and despite monthly surveys by a local bird guide and four days of intensive surveys in January 2018, no birds were discovered. This raised fears that the bird had gone extinct, but thorough surveys in the spring and summer of 2018 revealed a few sightings, including one in which two birds were discovered.