Critically endangered birds still alive on King Island

MARCH 27, 2019

by Australian National University

A new study has found two critically endangered bird species feared to be near extinction on King Island in the Bass Strait are not only still alive, but their populations may be larger than previously thought.

Lead researcher from The Australian National University (ANU) Dr. Matthew Webb says very little is known about the King Island scrubtit and brown thornbill.

Previous attempts to study the species have been hindered by the challenging, leech-infested terrain on King Island.

"Every sighting provides us with critical information to improve management approaches," Dr. Webb said.

"I am excited because our new methods revealed that thornbill and scrubtit populations are larger than previously thought."

The rare brownish birds are about the size of a ping pong ball, making them even more difficult to spot in the dense, swamp forests.

Scientists from ANU teamed up with Cradle Coast Natural Resource Management (Cradle Coast NRM), BirdLife Australia, Tasmanian Government and the Cradle Coast Authority, to conduct the first large-scale survey of the island's swamps and forests for the tiny birds.

The scientists looked for birds across the island, conducting more than 600 bird surveys over a three-week period.

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King Island birds face extinction without urgent federal help, residents say

Wings on King group warns: ‘We may have lost the King Island brown thornbill and the King Island scrubtit already’

Thu 24 May 2018 08.00 BSTLast modified on Thu 24 May 2018 08.01 BST

Residents of King Island in Tasmania want the federal government to intervene to try to stop two bird species from going extinct.

The King Island brown thornbill and the King Island scrubtit were recently identified as numbers one and three on a list of Australian bird species most likely to go extinct in the next 20 years if nothing was done.

Volunteers with the island’s natural resource management group, with help from Birdlife, applied for federal funding last year but were unsuccessful.

It is unclear how many endangered thornbills are on the island because they are difficult to detect. They were last seen by volunteers in 2015.

The most recent scientific monitoring of the scrubtit put its numbers at fewer than 50 and found major threats were habitat destruction, fire and poor fire management, and acid run-off in forest soils.

The small King Island community has been trying for years to get state and federal governments to help the little brown birds and warn that without emergency help the species could go the way of the bramble cay melomys, a mammal species that went extinct because officials were too late to act.

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