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By joining the biggest community of bird lovers in Australia, you can help us make a positive impact on the future of our native birdlife. The members of BirdLife Australia, along with our supporters and partners, have been powerful advocates for native birds and the conservation of their habitats since 1901.
We are also the meeting ground for everyone with an interest in birds from the curious backyard observer to the dedicated research scientist. It doesn’t matter what your interest in birds is or how much you know about them, your membership will offer you the opportunity to increase your awareness and enjoyment.
This report features articles on a small number of Australia’s precious islands, but it is only a snapshot of the situation, as more than 8,300 islands occur within Australia’s jurisdiction. Indeed, only a small number of these islands are ever visited regularly by people who record biological data, and precious little is known about most of them. We are left to make inferences about what is happening on those unknown islands from what is happening on the few we have studied. Nevertheless, some distinct themes emerge from the articles in this report: a high level of endemism means islands represent a critical biodiversity ark; even small increments of climate change-induced sea-level rise will have grave consequences for low-lying islands; and invasive species have already caused widespread devastation of many islands’ biological resources and ecological processes, and continue to do so at an alarming rate. We tend to know much more about islands inhabited by humans, of course, and the processes on inhabited islands are likely to be distinct. Patterns of invasion of islands by novel species, for example, are bound to be heavily influenced by human habitation: by contrast, climate change and sea-level rise will affect any island on the basis of its physical situation. Opportunities for mitigation, too, may depend on whether an island is inhabited. For instance, most examples of successful eradications and reintroductions have, so far, come from uninhabited islands, although there are some notable exceptions.
The 2009 report focuses on revegetation for woodland birds, particularly those in agricultual landscapes. Australia's woodlands -- especially in the temperate south-eastern and south-western wheat and sheep belts -- are among the most extensively cleared, fragmented and severely degraded habitats on the continent. And Australia's woodland birds, including many species generally regarded as common and widespread, are declining at an alarming rate. This publication concentrates on issues facing the revegetation of Australia's temperate and sutropical woodlands; particularly those that, historically, have overlapped with areas of intensive agriculture. There are a multitude of issues and a vast array of literature on this subject, and no attempt has been made at exhaustive coverage. The report merely introduces some of the key themes relevant to woodland birds -- Native vegetation clearance; Revegetation; Regrowth; Spatial attributes; Heterogeneity; and Extinction debt.
The 2008 report focuses on trends in bird populations as revealed by about 50 long-term monitoring programs running for up to 40 years. Thousands of volunteers, coordinated by a handful of individuals and groups, collected much of the data. This is an extraordinary expression of concern for Australia's birds and their habitats. Without such long-term commitment, how are we to understand which bird species and communities are truly in trouble, where to focus conservation efforts, what environmental management works and whether our management of the land is sustainable? Although the report deals with birds, the findings have much broader implications for nature and society -- birds are indicators of national quality of life. The latest results show that populations of many common bird species are in decline, evidence that the natural environment is continuing to be eroded through over-use, underinvestment in its care and restoration, and undervaluing of its importance.
The theme of this year's SOAB is climate change. Along with the rest of the planet, Australia's climate has undergone recent shifts ascribed to a build-up of greenhouse gases released by human activities in the past 150 years. There has been a consistent warming trend, both on land and at sea, which will continue even if greenhouse emissions are stabilised, and the rate change is expected to be greater than in the past. Simulations by global climate models point to a further rise averaging 1°C by 2030 across much of Australia, and even hotter inland. By 2070, temperatures are expected to average 2-5°C higher than in 1990, with the largest increases in summer. To put these changes in perspective, a further 1°C rise in average temperature will make Melbourne's climate like that currently experienced at Wagga Wagga in southern New South Wales. Changes in rainfall are spatially and seasonally variable, but projections are for less water and run-off in nearly all catchments by 2030 and a 30% decrease in rainfall across southern Australia.
Australia has hundreds of invasive plants and animals, both native and introduced. Some were brought purposely, others hitchhiked; the majority have taken the many opportunities offered by human alteration of the landscape. Invasive species are considered to be the greatest threat to biodiversity after habitat loss; they also exact a massive toll on agricultural production.
This third annual report focuses on woodland birds. Woodlands once covered one-third of the continent. The 'great Australian bush', with its kookaburras and magpies, is part of our national identity. Yet, in the south much of the bush has given way to agriculture. In the north, the trees may remain but savannas are degraded by livestock grazing, the effect of which is exacerbated by invasive grasses in combination with inappropriate fire regimes.
This report examines the status of birds associated with Australia's wetlands at both national and regional scales. It highlights the main threats they face, the species in need of attention, and the national and international efforts to protect them. The performance of governments is examined by their response to the identification of species of high conservation concern in the Action Plan for Australian Birds 2000.
SOAB 2003 is the first in a series of reports summarising the fortunes of Australia's birds. It presents population trends and changes for Australian birds over various time spans - some extending from the 1960s - leading up to the present. It is intended that this introductory SOAB report sets the baseline for five-yearly overviews, informed by the Atlas & Birdata project and many other monitoring programs. These overviews will be interspersed with themed reports on topics such as habitat change, freshwater birds, seabirds, shorebirds, and the fate of birds on islands.
