The rufous scrub-bird remains one of the rarest birds in the world and has the official conservation status of Near Threatened, in danger of becoming threatened with extinction. Both species were thought to be extinct until the early 1960s, but environmentalists have succeeded in increasing populations of the noisy scrub-bird from fewer than 50 breeding territories in 1961 to nearly 750 in 2002. As a result, the noisy species has been downgraded from Endangered, facing a very high risk of extinction, to Vulnerable, facing a high risk of extinction.