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The extent and adequacy of

monitoring for Australian threatened

bird species

Stephen T. Garnett and Hayley M. Geyle

Summary

The quality of monitoring of threatened birds varies from none whatsoever to
regular and accurate counts of most individuals with results widely reported and
integral to adaptive management. About 70% of threatened and Near Threatened
Australian birds have some level of monitoring. The taxa that are more likely to be
monitored are more threatened, with larger populations, in more accessible sites,
with a recovery plan, which are either shorebirds or parrots, which live on the
mainland or oceanic islands (versus continental islands or which migrate
internationally), but taxa with larger ranges were less likely to be monitored. Of
those that are monitored, the frequency of monitoring and coordination among
those doing the work was high, but results were often poorly reported, rarely linked
to management and often narrowly framed to just detect changes in population
size without understanding underlying drivers. The quality of monitoring was