Populations Of Australia's Threatened Birds Drop 60% In Past 40 Years - QLD, SA Saw Biggest Declines

Australia’s populations of threatened and near-threatened bird species have declined by 60% on average in the past 40 years, new research shows. The threatened bird index, which is produced by scientists working with the University of Queensland, reveals some of the largest declines were among species found in South Australia and Queensland.

The index brings together almost 20,000 monitoring datasets from across Australia to measure long-term trends among threatened and near-threatened birds. The 2023 index examined 72 species – 43 terrestrial, 13 migratory, 15 marine and one wetland species – for which enough data was available to assess trends. They include the curlew sandpiper, the helmeted honeyeater and the gang-gang cockatoo.

The scientists found the abundance of the species declined, on average, by 60% between 1985 and 2020 and that the average annual decline since 2000 was 2.2%. “It’s not going well,” said the conservation data-scientist, Elisa Bayraktarov. “We need to do better in protecting our threatened and near-threatened birds. When we see these levels of decline we need to be thinking about conservation actions. “First of all making sure these birds have habitat to live in – not removing any more – and removing predator species, particularly cats and foxes.”

Since 2000 terrestrial bird species showed the greatest declines (62.5%), followed by migratory shorebirds (42.5%) and marine birds (33.8%).

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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/30/australian-populations-of-threatened-bird-species-fall-60-in-past-40-years-study-says