Wetlands are crucial to Endangered birds like the Australasian Bittern, as well as the Orange-bellied Parrot, one of Australia’s most threatened species.
Key points
- BirdLife Australia’s Waterbird Index consolidated over 4 million waterbird records from 25 databases across Australia to undertake the first national audit on Australian Waterbird trends
- Many non-migratory waterbird species have undergone long-term declines since the 1980s as identified by the Waterbird Index
- The Australasian Bittern and Australian Painted Snipe are two wetland species currently Endangered
Australian wetlands and waterways have undergone intensive modification since European colonisation. The changes to natural processes and ecology has had long-term effects on the waterbird populations that rely on dynamic wetting and drying periods.
Voice and action: looking after our disappearing wetlands
In a country where water security is a concern for many, we must conserve the health of our unique wetlands. Australia’s iconic waterbirds have evolved to take advantage of boom-bust cycles and are capable of tracking resources across thousands of kilometres to feed, shelter and breed in pulsing habitats.
Our waterbirds rely on wetlands of many types and on many scales, from desert floodplains to coastal lagoons and urban waterways. These sites are linked in time and space and a coordinated, continental-scale conservation effort is needed to preserve the birds that rely on them.
Waterbird conservation requires:
- identifying and preserving critical wetland values
- restoring wetland habitat and connections
- implementing recovery actions for threatened species – Orange-bellied Parrot, Australian Painted Snipe and Australasian Bittern
- preventing further habitat loss.
We need to keep speaking up for our birds and protect the life-giving flows which breathe life into our wetlands.
Protecting our wetland birds
BirdLife Australia works with land managers, water holders, government, traditional owners, academics, NGOs and community groups to improve the health of our wetlands and the species that rely on them. We focus on projects that fill key knowledge gaps, help track bird populations and protect the places in which they live. Given the highly mobile nature of waterbirds, we often need to protect more than one wetland site.
Monitoring and research are critical for conservation, and we have spearheaded and managed surveying projects with our partners that have collected much-needed information on wetland birds and their habitats. The Melbourne Water surveys and Gippsland Lakes monitoring (including the Great Pelican Count) are two long-running projects providing baseline data of bird numbers and the impacts of human activity that inform conservation efforts in these areas.
Our Bittern Project, begun in 2007, revealed the concerning decline in Australasian Bittern numbers and led to the species being Federally listed as Endangered, and added to the IUCN Red List.
We have also helped to create legislation – the EPBC Act – to protect the environment, and advocate stronger reforms to make sure this legislation can do what it is designed to do.
