CONSERVATION ACTION URGENTLY NEEDED TO SAVE THE KING ISLAND SCRUBTIT AND BROWN THORNBILL

King Island Scrubtits and King Island Brown Thornbills live only on King Island. They are small, brown and hard to spot, and they are among the top three most critically endangered birds in Australia The main threat is from loss of their habitat due to land clearing, fires, agricultural draining, herbivore browsing and trampling, and incursion of weeds Given the extensive loss of native vegetation on King Island and the highly threatened status of the KI Scrubtit and KI Brown Thornbill, it is likely that, in the absence of recovery actions, these subspecies will become extinct in the wild in the near future

The King Island Threatened Birds Survey Project has highlighted the conservation status of these endangered birds and their habitats. The project was supported by Cradle Coast Authority, through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program, and it recently finished after more than three years of intensive survey work

Many local flora and fauna extinctions have occurred on King Island since European settlement in 1880 This is primarily due to land clearing for agriculture and the threat of fire

Despite the impact of agriculture, King Island is still rich in biodiversity For this project, a team of ecologists, led by Dr Phil Bell, embarked on describing the habitat and improving the mapping of vegetation on King Island Drone aerial imagery was used to map habitat at a fine scale and to assist in a major review of the TASVEG map of the island. A refined habitat map of current and future potential habitat for the King Island Brown Thornbill and King Island Scrubtit was also produced, to guide conservation efforts

Bird detections were enhanced by playing song recordings using portable speakers, and listening for replies Although both birds’ ranges were extended, their estimated numbers remain alarmingly low (only 50 scrubtits and 100 thornbills) and uncertain and require future monitoring

Habitat modelling found that the KI Scrubtit favoured mature swamp forest and thus climate change further threatens these damp areas upon which the scrubtit depends and increases fire risk The KI Brown Thornbill prefers mature Eucalypt forests which now have a very limited extent on King Island.

Since European settlement, King Island has had a history of devastating wildfires More recently, fires in 2001 and 2007 burnt extensive areas of the island’s native vegetation, in particular in Lavinia State Reserve.

Dr Bell said: “Fire is the most imminent risk to these birds’ remaining habitats, so one conservation priority is an island-wide fire management strategy and a fire emergency response plan for critical threatened bird habitat.”

Other key recommendations of the project call for these habitats and potential future mature forests to be given immediate priority for protection from land clearing and formal conservation management to be implemented. Where habitat exists on private land, stock can be fenced out of vegetated areas to allow plant regeneration