4 – The extent and adequacy of monitoring for Australian threatened bird species^47Results
Some form of monitoring was occurring in 71% of taxa. The remaining 29% of
taxa had no monitoring whatsoever. Even ongoing bird atlas programs cannot
monitor them because they are too scarce. Of the 222 taxa considered, those that
are more threatened, with larger populations, in more accessible sites and with a
recovery plan were more likely to be monitored (Fig. 4.1a). In contrast, all else
being equal, taxa with larger ranges were less likely to be monitored. Population
variability and detectability had no effect on probability of being monitored and
neither did whether a taxon was a species or subspecies. Mainland taxa and those
on oceanic islands were more likely to be monitored than those on continental
islands or non-breeding migrants (Fig. 4.2b). Similarly, parrots and shorebirds were
more likely to be monitored than seabirds, passerines or others (Fig. 4.2c)
The mean score across all metrics was 2.4 (out of a maximum of 5.0) across all
taxa (Fig. 4.2). For many taxa, monitoring scores were particularly high for the first
six metrics, especially periodicity and coordination, but poor for data availability
and reporting, the links to management and whether the monitoring assessed life
history parameters or just population size.
Monitoring quality was most strongly associated with IUCN Red List category,
detectability and whether there was a recovery plan (Fig. 4.3), with range and
population size, variability and site accessibility having no effect.
Of the geographical groupings, non-breeding migrants had the highest quality
monitoring (Fig. 4.4a). Of the taxonomic groupings, the shorebirds were best-
monitored (Fig. 4.4b).
Discussion
This study is the first of its kind in Australia, and thus provides a baseline against
which future assessments of bird monitoring can be made. Elsewhere, quality of
bird monitoring has rarely been assessed at a regional scale, the only published
account being from The State of Canada’s Birds (North American Bird
Conservation Initiative Canada 2012), which notes that ~70% of all of Canada’s
breeding and non-breeding taxa have medium- to high-quality monitoring in
place, though does not specify how such categories are defined.
That not all taxa have monitoring programs is unsurprising. The six taxa that
occur nowhere but Heard and Macdonald Islands are visited too rarely to
determine trends. Not only is it expensive to reach these remote islands, but the
greatest risk to the birds is the very act of visiting to count them. On the other
hand the lack of monitoring of species such as the southern cassowary Casuarius
casuarius is inexcusable given its ecological, social and economic importance.
Similarly, three of the taxa judged as Critically Endangered using the IUCN Red
List criteria – the Christmas Island frigatebird Fregata andrewsi, Grey Range
thick-billed grasswren Amytornis modestus obscurior and King Island brown