Victoria - Birds Australia

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Geographic Range

Birds Australia Victoria covers the entire state of Victoria, which is located in the south east corner of Australia and bounded by the Murray River in the north, South Australia in the west and Bass Strait and the southern Oceans in the south.

Latest News

Fire Recovery Surveys

We know that many thousands of birds either died as a direct result of the recent Victorian fires or shortly afterwards, and that many birds were forced to move to other areas to stay alive. For future planning and conservation efforts it is important for us to know how bird populations are responding to the recent fires.

Bird surveys of recently burnt areas in the next few months, together with information about the fires being gathered by DSE and other Government agencies, will allow us to answer important questions such as:

• Which species survive or even thrive in the recently burnt areas, and which species were most adversely affected?
• Did the intensity of the fire affect the type of birds returning and how rapidly do they recolonise areas?
• Are bird populations lower in the middle of intensely burnt stands than those closer to the edge of fire scars?
• Do small unburnt patches act as refuges and support higher densities of birds than large patches?
• How quickly do bird populations change over time as habitat recovers after fire?
• Do distribution patterns vary with fire intensity, forest type, distance from unburnt habitat or size of burnt or unburnt patch?

In order to answer some of these questions we are calling on volunteers to start conducting bird surveys at the same sites at regular intervals over the coming months and years. Repeating surveys at sites is a crucial step in us understanding changes in bird composition over time, and will allow us to address the questions listed above.

How You Can Help?

1. A series of surveys over time at one or more sites that had been burnt in the recent fires.
2. A series of surveys over time at one or more sites that had not been burnt by recent fires.
3. Surveys at pairs of sites in the same forest type and similar location where one site was burnt and the other site not burnt by the recent fires.
4. Surveys in a particular forest type at sites at different distances from the fire boundary, e.g. one in unburnt forest 1 km from burnt forest; one in unburnt forest 100 m from burnt forest; one across the fire boundary; one in burnt forest 100 m from unburnt forest; one in burnt forest 1 km from unburnt forest, all in similar forest type.

You do not need to be an expert birdwatcher or ornithologist to do these surveys and they can be close to your home if you live in any of the areas of Victoria that were affected in the recent fires. Ideally, sites would be surveyed using standard 20-minute area-searches of ~2 Ha, with individual birds counted on each survey (these will allow us to interrogate the data as systematically as possible). However, other methods are also useful, tailored to local conditions and observer preferences as long as they are done systematically. General lists of birds from an area would also be useful, especially if they are annotated with comments about what use birds were making of burnt and unburnt habitat. A brief description of each site and accurate location information would be useful for the analysis of the results.

Remember never put your safety at risk - no surveys should be attempted at sites where conditions may be dangerous due to risk of falling trees or branches, land slippage, poor access due to damaged bridges and paths or any other reason. Please also be sensitive when surveying close to private property and respect peoples’ right to privacy.

If you can help or have questions please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it at the Birds Australia National Office tel: 03 9347 0757 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it tel: 03 9387 8734 (AH).

This work is a joint initiative between Birds Australia, Arthur Rylah Institute (DSE), and Bird Observation and Conservation Australia.

Special Birds of the Region

Victoria has a diversity of habitats for such a compact area and has many areas where large bird congregations can be seen. Some of the specialties of the region are Little Penguin, Cape Barren Goose, Hooded Plover, Red-capped Plover, Short-tailed Shearwater, Plainswanderer, Powerful Owl, Superb Lyrebird, Ground Parrot, Orange-bellied Parrot, Swift Parrot, Turquoise Parrot, Red-tailed Black Cockatoo (Southern subspecies), Black-eared Miner, Helmeted form of Yellow-tufted Honeyeater, Mallee Emu-wren, Southern Emu-wren, Pink Robin, Rufous Bristlebird and Pilotbird.

Projects in the Region

Members and guests in Victoria have the opportunity to participate in a variety of Birds Australia projects including:

Orange-bellied and Swift Parrot surveys in winter
Painted Snipe, Superb Parrot and Regent Honeyeater surveys in spring and summer
Grey-crowned Babbler surveys in northern Victoria
Hooded Plover surveys in southern Victoria
Waders and shorebird surveys with the Victorian Wader Study Group
Projects are also aimed at monitoring the avifauna of Important Bird Areas
Conserving habitat and assessing the avifauna at Devilbend Reservoir
Protecting the habitat of the You Yangs by Boneseed weed removal
Investigating population dynamics of woodland birds in the Rushworth bird banding project, which is one of only a few regular, long term population studies of woodland birds in Australia
Bird Atlassing in NRM Regions
Birdline Victoria website

Urban Lorikeets

Since the 1970s Lorikeets have been moving into Melbourne suburbs. The first Lorikeet to increase in numbers was the Rainbow Lorikeet. This species was rarely seen around Melbourne until the late 1970s, but today it is one of the most conspicuous birds of the suburbs. In a similar manner over the last decade Musk, Purple-crowned and Little (as well as Scaly-breasted) Lorikeets have become more frequently recorded in the suburbs, especially the northern and western parts of Melbourne.

These lorikeets breed in tree hollows and there is stiff competition in the Melbourne area for any available hollows. What we need is data about the breeding of Little, Purple-crowned and Musk Lorikeets in the Melbourne area. If you see any of these Lorikeets nesting in hollows, or feeding dependent young we would like you to report it. All you need to do is to fill in the Lorikeet Sighting Record (140kb) and This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it it back to us. For more information on helping us learn more about these cheeky birds download the pdf (121kb).

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Conservation Issues

Victoria is the smallest mainland state in Australia but has a high human population density and a high level of development. This and below average rainfall in most parts of the state over the last decade have put great pressure on the avifauna. Of particular concern at the moment are the River Red Gum forests along the Murray River and its tributaries in northern Victoria and the avifauna that depend on them. In addition inland wetlands and water ways have been in decline for many years. Coastal development and the high level of beach use has negatively impacted on the habitats of beach nesting and foraging birds such as Hooded Plover, Pied and Sooty Oystercatchers and the migratory Orange-bellied Parrot that relies on coastal vegetation in Victoria. The dredging and deepening of Port Phillip Bay is of great concern due to its uncertain impact on bird life in the area.

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 , Conservation
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Activities

Apart from the opportunity to be involved in conservation and research projects BA Victoria also runs a series of outings to members’ favourite birdwatching areas and a number of weekend camps to more distant areas within the state. The annual bird race or Twitchathon is held to celebrate spring and to raise money for conservation and research. A regular meeting is held on the second Thursday of every month at Birds Australia headquarters in Carlton and features reports of interesting bird sightings, updates on activities and a guest speaker. These meetings also offer the opportunity to socialise over a cup of tea and biscuits with other like-minded individuals and exchange information.

What's On

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

Publications

BA Victoria publishes a quarterly newsletter, VicBabbler, which details topics of interest to Victorian birdwatchers, conservationists and general readers. VicBabbler also contains a calendar and details of all Activities, monthly talks and contact details.

VicBabbler June 2009 (756kb)
VicBabbler March 2009 (400kb)
VicBabbler December 2008 (599kb)

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