Conservation

Puna Thistletail is currently listed as ‘Least Concern’ by Birdlife International (2008) and as ‘Medium Conservation Priority’ by Parker et al. (1996). The species has an estimated global Extent of Occurrence of 15,000 km2 and its total population is thought to be small (Remsen 2003) but it is not believed to approach the thresholds for the range criterion of the IUCN Red List (Birdlife International 2008). The species is known to occur in two protected areas: Manu National Park (Walker et al. 2007) and Machu Picchu Historical Sanctuary (Walker and Fjeldså 2005).

Land-use practises such as burning, grazing, and the conversion/clearance of paramo grasslands and forest patches for small-scale agriculture has greatly reduced the total surface extent of the linear Andean tree-line ecotone (Remsen 2003). Habitat loss within EBA 055 is currently described as ‘moderate’ due to subsistence agricultural land-use (Stattersfield et al. 1998) but populations in the Abra Malaga region have been under considerable pressure recently from road construction programs (Lloyd unpublished data).