Falcon,
The magpie robin was near extinction/extinct in Singapore some years back.
I heard it has something to do with trees. All trees are the same right? I mean they take in carbon dioxide, provide us oxygen, shade etc etc
.Well, the answer is NO!
Magpie robin used to be a fairly common bird in Singapore. They sing beautifully. One fine day, people discovered that they have disappeared! Experts were looped in to check on the phenomena. The findings were that during a period of time, trees were imported from overseas to beautify our garden city. Trees that used to be resident (local trees) in Singapore were pulled down and make way for these imported trees. The magpie robin cannot live well with these imported trees so they left. People started to realize that local trees are important as well and continue to use them as part of city planning. After that, magpie robin seemed to return and plus re-introduction are doing very well in Singapore! This is a good example that teaches us the important of nature conservation. We almost lost a beautiful species that brighten our day with their beautiful songs due to our ignorance!
Some information on magpie robin in Singapore is available here:
http://www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/birds/Copsychus_saularis.htm