Tasmania - Birds Australia

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Tasmania

Geographic Range

Tasmania and its numerous offshore islands cover an area of about 6,723,000 hectares. Because of the island’s topography, vegetation communities (including buttongrass moorlands, wet and dry eucalypt forests, myrtle beech rainforests and coastal heathlands) can change over small distances. Forests still cover approximately 47% of the island; 25% is included in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage area and there are approximately 3000 kilometres of coastline.

Latest News

Coastcare Week
Decemer 7 -13, 2009 is Coastcare week. Click here to find out more about the activities going on around this event, and how we all have an impact on our coasts.

Tasmanian Landcare Awards
The 2009 Tasmanian Landcare Awards were held recently at Swansea. A big congratulations goes out to Birds Tasmania who has won the Australian Government Coastcare Award for "excellence in activities that have contributed to a significant improvement of local coastal and/or marine environments, including estuaries, coastal and marine wetlands and saltmarsh ecosystems". They are now in the running for the same category in the 2010 National Landcare awards.

Special Birds of the Region

Apart from the Forty-spotted Pardalote which has a restricted distribution in the southeast, Tasmania’s 12 endemic bird species are reasonably widespread. The two breeding endemics, both listed as endangered, include the Orange-bellied Parrot, which has a very restricted distribution in the southwest, and the Swift Parrot which, depending on the time of year and seasonal conditions, can be seen in most areas.

Other threatened species include the Tasmanian subspecies of the Wedge-tailed Eagle and Masked Owl and the pure white form of the Grey Goshawk.

Many species of penguins have been recorded from the shores of Tasmania. In many cases, the birds arrive late in the summer looking for a place to moult. The most frequently recorded species are Rockhopper penguins, but King, Macaroni and Gentoo penguins are also visitors to Tasmania. More than 100 vagrant penguins have been recorded from all around Tasmania.

Projects in the Region

Birds Tasmania organises bi-annual monitoring projects including:

Summer and winter wader (shorebird) counts in the northwest, north/northeast and southeast of the state, and an annual winter gull count to assess long term population trends. Some areas have been counted for more than 40 years, generating some of the longest time series for coastal birds in Australia.

Twice a year members of Birds Tasmania assist Parks and Wildlife personnel at Freycinet National Park to survey the birds at Moulting Lagoon, a wetland of international significance (a Ramsar site) on the east coast. These data are used in assessing population trends for eight species of waterfowl.

The Robins and Swift Parrot Project
The Robins and Swift Parrot project was initiated in 2002 to help raise awareness about Tasmania’s forest birds. Though by no means the only bird species thought to be decreasing, this project, which focuses on a group of well-liked birds that are reasonably easy to identify, has been enthusiastically supported by members of Birds Tasmania and the general public with many people sending in records of the four robin species (Flame, Dusky, Scarlet and Pink Robins). Any contributions to the Robins and Swift Parrots project should be sent to:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
999 Denmans Road
Birralee TAS 7303

Birds Tasmania members continue to contribute to the ongoing Atlas of Australian Birds project.

Conservation Issues

• Minimal Impact Sea Kayaking brochure released. Birds Tas provided information to the Tasmanian Sea Canoeing Club to assist in their effort to minimise the potential for visits to seabird islands to disturb nesting birds. The brochure details information on breeding dates for some of the more often-encountered species around Tasmania, in addition to some guidelines for visitors to minimise their disturbance to breeding and roosting seabirds and shorebirds

• Whereas Tasmania’s forests were previously selective harvested for milling, railway sleepers and more recently, for woodchips, in the past two decades industrial-scale forestry has lead to the clearfelling of large tracts of native forests on public and privately owned land

• The construction of the proposed pulp mill in the Tamar Valley will undoubtedly have an adverse impact on many species of Tasmanian birds, especially those closest to the mill in the forests of central north Tasmania

• Like all of Tasmania’s forests, those of central north Tasmania are a mosaic of wet and dry vegetation communities. Where unfragmented forests remain, they support numerous birds species including those most often associated with the drier forests of the east coast including Painted Button-quail and Spotted Quail-thrush, in addition to Pink Robins, Scrubtits and Bassian Thrush, birds of wet forests and rainforests

• In striving for economic viability, landowners are often forced to clear so-called “degraded” forests and woodlands (often remnant bush on farmland) and convert these to plantations of pines and eucalypts. The health of bush remnants deteriorates further with the incursion of weeds such as gorse. The propensity of landowners to “clean up” removes valuable logs and litter, and clearing out the understorey simplifies the structure of the vegetation to the detriment of many bird species

• Concurrently, large areas of cleared farmland are also undergoing considerable changes. As farming becomes less viable, eucalypt plantations are covering rich pastureland with adverse implications for open country birds

• The intensification of farming, building of dams and increased irrigation sees Tasmania repeating the mistakes made on the southern mainland with likely concomitant decreases of bird species

• Development, often in the guise of “eco-tourism”, in highly desirable coastal areas, leads to considerable loss of native vegetation and habitat for birds. Where remnant bush is retained the understorey vegetation and coarse woody debris is often perceived as a fire risk and removed

• An increasing spectrum, frequency and intensity of pressures on Tasmania’s coastal margin has resulted in the loss of many breeding shorebirds such as hooded plovers and beach-nesting fairy and little terns. Efforts are currently underway to work with local Councils and NRM bodies to conserve the remaining populations of shorebirds and terns throughout Tasmania

Activities

• Summer and Winter Wader counts - Northwest, North & Northeast, and Southeast: January/February & June/July (dates and times will depend on the tides, and will be announced closer to the day)
• Moulting Lagoon waterfowl counts in January/February & June/July (Dates confirmed closer to the day)
• Winter Gull Count - long weekend in June, counts undertaken in the southeast.

What's On

For a list of events in Tasmania, please check out our calendar

Contacts

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , Convenor
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , Secretary
Mobile, 0419 138 054

Publications

Birds Tasmania produce:
• A bi-monthly regional newsletter Yellow-Throat
• Annual Tasmanian Bird Report
• Endemic bird guides

For further reading on Birds in Tasmania please go to http://tassiebirds.blogspot.com/

Yellow Throat December 2009
Yellow Throat October 2009
Yellow Throat August 2009
Yellow Throat June 2009
Yellow Throat April 2009
Yellow Throat February 2009

Birds Tasmania Annual Report 2008

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Heard Island Cormorant and Macaroni Penguin colony, Heard Island © Eric Woehler

Sooty Oystercatcher © Alan Fletcher

Fairy Tern feeding at Orford © Alan Fletcher

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