The Black-hooded Coucal (Centropus Steerii), also known as Steere’s Coucal, is endemic to the island of Mindoro in the Philippines, where it was formerly widespread and fairly common.

However, only a tiny amount of lowland forest remains on Mindoro and its population is now believed to be extremely small, with records since 1980 from just three localities (Siburan, Puerto Galera, Malpalon). At Siburan, probably the key site for the species, no more than four birds per day have been recorded during fieldwork.

It is restricted to primary lowland and transitional (to mid-mountain) dipterocarp forest, where it frequents dense vegetation, tangled thickets, vine-covered shrubs and bamboo.

Threat

By 1988, extensive deforestation on Mindoro had reduced forest cover to a mere 120 km2, of which only a small proportion is below this species’s upper altitudinal limit. The lowland forest that does remain is highly fragmented and and it is believed that at the current rate of deforestation all forest may have disappeared by 2020-2030.

Slash-and-burn cultivation, occasional selective logging and rattan collection threaten the forest fragments that still support the species. Dynamite blasting for marble is an additional threat to forest at Puerto Galera. Its genetic viability may be at risk given the small size and fragmented nature of remaining populations.

Conservation

An education program has also been started at Malpalon. Funding has been provided for faunal inventories and environmental education initiatives at Puerto Galera, where hunting has been locally prohibited. The Sablayan Penal Colony recently adopted the Mindoro Bleeding-heart as their flagship species for conservation and established a forest protection and restoration unit within the boundaries of the penal colony inside the Mt. Siburan IBA, which may also benefit the coucal.

As part of the BirdLife Preventing Extinctions programme, Haribon Foundation are implementing the following actions for Mindoro Bleeding-heart and Black-hooded Coucal:

• an IBA monitoring team for Mount Siburan has been set up, training and utilising local participants;
• actions are underway to strengthen the Sablayan Forest Management Board (SFMB), the main function of which is to oversee the implementation of the Sablayan Forest Management Plan;
• an IEC (Information-Education-Communication) Plan is being developed for use in environmental education, awareness raising and local advocacy;
• a Sablayan Ecotourism Plan is being developed, including training local bird tour guides;
• efforts have been made to strengthen and consolidate the Site Support Group’s actions aimed at eliminating logging activities and the accidental snaring of Mindoro Bleeding-heart.

This coucal qualifies as Critically Endangered because it is believed to have an extremely small, severely fragmented population, which is continuing to decline owing to degradation and loss of remaining forest fragments.