Birdwatchers from all over the Philippines and neighboring countries will flock to Cebu on Sept. 21 to spread the gospel of wildlife habitat conservation and reinforce international efforts to save a rare island species from extinction.

The bird under “death sentence” is the Cebu Flowerpecker, a tiny, blueblack and white bird with a distinctive red patch on its back. It is unique to the forests of Cebu and exists nowhere else on the planet. Birdwatchers contend that if the last remaining small patches of the Flowerpecker’s forest habitat are not preserved, the breed will vanish forever. More.