Fantails: Rhipiduridae

The many species of fantail that live on large land masses are not threatened with extinction. However, several of the island populations are Vulnerable, facing a high risk of extinction in the wild. These include the Malaita fantail on Malaita in the Solomon Islands of the Pacific, whose population is known to be small. What is causing this low population remains uncertain. The Manus fantail from the Admiralty Islands of Papua New Guinea was once common on Manus Island, though no records of them exist since 1934. They are still found on neighboring islands, but no reason has been determined for the decline in population.

The five species that are considered Near Threatened, in danger of becoming threatened with extinction, include the cinnamon-tailed fantail and long-tailed fantail, both of the Tanimbar Islands; Cockerell's fantail of the Solomon Islands; dusky fantail of San Christobal, Solomon Islands; and Matthias fantail of the Mussau, Bismarck Archipelago. The possible cause is the high number of logging operations throughout these species' range. The threat to the rarer, harder-to-observe species in remote locations remains difficult to determine. Small populations may be threatened by introduced species or the alteration of their habitat.