Bushfire recovery

Key points

• The bushfires are estimated to have burned over 97,000km² of habitat for native species
• Over four billion animals were killed, harmed or displaced, including a myriad of native Australian birds
• 17 species of birds have been identified as requiring urgent management action

Saving birds after catastrophic bushfires

The scope and scale of the destruction from Australia’s 2019–20 bushfires are difficult to comprehend, as is the huge impact on native birds and their habitats. At BirdLife Australia, we’re working to protect the species which are most at risk as a result of the bushfires.

Why were the 2019–20 bushfires so harmful?

Bushfires are a seasonal phenomenon in Australia, serving an important role in ecosystems where native plants and animals benefit from, and sometimes rely on, periodic burns of limited size and intensity.

However, human-induced climate change has increased the incidence of extreme fire weather and lengthened bushfire seasons, meaning fires are now:

• Becoming larger
• Occurring more often
• Reoccurring in areas where vegetation has not recovered from previous bushfires

Damage happens quickly, but bushfire recovery is a long-term process

The impacts of the Black Summer fires on native birds will be considerable and long lasting.

• The fires killed an immeasurable number of individual birds.
• Many native birds have become more vulnerable to predation by introduced predators (e.g. feral cats and foxes), while large herbivores such as feral deer and pigs can damage and destroy vegetation regrowth, impeding the recovery of habitat.
• Changes to the plant communities, such as the destruction of trees with hollows and the loss of plants old enough to produce fruit, nectar or seeds will also have adverse effects on birds for many years.

Taking urgent action to save native birds

In the aftermath of the 2019–20 bushfires, BirdLife Australia worked quickly to conduct analyses of the fires and how they overlapped with birds’ distribution.

These assessments were provided to the Australian Government, which generated a priority list for birds requiring urgent management action.

Bushfire recovery projects

The Bushfire Recovery Program comprises a range of projects, each focused on the recovery of one or more birds most adversely impacted by the Black Summer fires.