A FOUR-YEAR STUDY OF A BIRD COMMUNITY IN A WOODLAND REMNANT NEAR MOYSTON, WESTERN VICTORIA
| Posted: |
22/06/2021 |
| Author(s): |
Simon J. Kennedy |
Bird species richness and abundance were estimated monthly between September 1989 and February 1994
at a woodland remnant near Moyston in western Victoria. The migratory status of each species was assessed.
Changes in abundance seasonally and over a longer period are reported. The results indicate that this remnant
.is used by about thirty species of resident birds as well as supporting various migrants and partial migrants.
The study site was occasionally visited by large numbers of several nectarivorous species.
Two resident species (Hooded Robin
Melanodryas cucullata and Buff-rumped Thornbill
Acanthiza reguloides)
disappeared during the survey, and another (Speckled Warbler
Chthonicola sagittatus) has since disappeared
from the remnant. These species are all ground nesters and/or ground feeders. Such species are of conservation
concern across the temperate woodlands of south-eastern Australia, as they also have declined elsewhere in
these habitats in recent decades. The White-browed Scrubwren
Sericornis frontalis was a resident by the survey's
completion, having been recorded only sporadically earlier in the study.
The results give insight into the movements of birds at this site and presumably other woodland remnants in
the area. The loss of resident species witnessed here is a tangible example of a loss of species occurring at a
larger scale in temperate woodlands in Australia.
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