Recovering declining birds in Australian landscapes

Background

The Mount Lofty Ranges (MLR) of South Australia is nationally recognised as one of Australia’s biodiversity hotspots. Over 90% of native vegetation in the MLR was cleared by the mid-1800s and this clearing continued into the 1980’s resulting in only fragmented patches of native vegetation throughout the region. The region itself has become, through land-clearing, a remote island of native woodland 100’s of kilometres from similar habitat.

The University of Adelaide and the Nature Conservation Society of South Australia run an ongoing landscape-wide woodland bird monitoring program which aims to identify trends in the distribution and abundance of birds in response to a changing environment and broad-scale ecosystem management.

To estimate trends in the relative abundance of different bird species between 2001 and 2022, we used generalised linear mixed effects models (GLMMs). Trend estimates from the GLMMs for 57 MLR bird species are presented in Figure 1 (Prowse, 2022, unpublished).

The importance of habitat

While much of the remnant vegetation in the MLR is now protected, woodland bird recovery is likely to require significant revegetation to increase the area and connectivity of suitable habitat. While some revegetation has been occurring for more than 20 years, the quantity of restored habitat is insufficient and the quality of outcomes is poorly understood. We aim to measure and understand the contribution of restoration to woodland bird conservation in the MLR.

Research Questions

• Which MLR bird species are declining?
• What are the drivers of these declines?
• What is the impact of revegetation on woodland bird conservation in the MLR?
• What is the willingness of South Australians to pay for restoration

Project publications

• Prowse, T. A. A., O'Connor, P. J., Collard, S. J., Peters, K. J., & Possingham, H. P. (2021). Optimising monitoring for trend detection after 16 years of woodland-bird surveys. Journal of Applied Ecology 58:1090-1100. DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.13860
• Collard, S.J., O’Connor, P.J., Prowse, T.A.A., Gregg, D. and Bond, A.J. (2020), Objectives versus realities: Spatial, temporal, financial and social deficiencies in Australia’s public revegetation investment model. Ecol Manag Restor, 21: 35-41. https://doi.org/10.1111/emr.12398
• Prowse, T. A. A., Collard, S. J., Blackwood, A., O'Connor, P. J., Delean, S., Barnes, M., Cassey, P., & Possingham, H. P. (2017). Prescribed burning impacts avian diversity and disadvantages woodland-specialist birds unless long-unburnt habitat is retained. Biological Conservation 215:268–276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2017.09.005
• Field, S.A., O’Connor, P.J., Tyre, A.J. and Possingham, H.P. (2007). Making monitoring meaningful. Austral Ecology 32:485-491. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-9993.2007.01715.x
• Field, S.A., Tyre, A.J., Thorn, K.H., O’Connor, P.J. and Possingham, H.P. (2005). Improving the efficiency of wildlife monitoring by estimating detectability: a case study of foxes (Vulpes vulpes) on the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. Wildlife Research 32:253-258.

Project partners

Lead institutions

• The Centre for Global Food and Resources, University of Adelaide
• The Nature Conservation Society of South Australia

Collaborating institutions:

• Green Adelaide Landscape Board
• Hills & Fleurieu Landscape Board
• Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, University of Queensland

Contact

Researchers involved in this project:

• Prof Patrick O’Connor AM
• Dr Thomas Prowse
• Prof Hugh Possingham
• Brittany Norris