NEST BOX PROJECT

One of the most promising conservation actions by the STGF has been the establishment of our network of artificial nestboxes in sites around Wyndham, Kununurra, WA and east into the NT.

Nestboxes have been shown to dramatically increase reproductive success of Gouldians and overcome the declining availability of nesting hollows caused by inappropriate fire regimes.

STGF supported research published in Austral Ecology 38: 405-412 by James Brazill-Boast, Sarah Pryke and Simon Griffith in 2013 clearly showed the benefit of nestboxes:

Breeding densities
Without boxes: ~ 40% of population breed
With boxes: >95% population breed

Reproductive Success
Without Boxes: 2-3 fledglings per nest
With boxes: 4-5 fledge

Our nestbox network now numbers around 2500 boxes but to be effective the network needs to be maintained. Recently we applied to the Threatened Species Recovery Fund for support to establish a team in the field to visit every site and renew or refurbish the boxes to continue enhanced Gouldian breeding. We were unsuccessful, but this is an important need and we will find other ways to proceed. This will be a first step in re-establishing our field research activities. Stay tuned for more news.

FIRE MANAGEMENT

How are Gouldians affected by wildfires? Although the major declines in Gouldian finch populations were initially blamed on air sac mite and wild trapping of birds for the pet industry, recent research suggests that main factor for why Gouldian finch populations are not recovering is because of large-scale habitat change and inappropriate fire regimes. Fire not only affects the availability and production of Eucalyptus tree cavities (used for nesting – see nest-box project), but also alters seed diversity. Prior to the introduction of pastoralism in the nineteenth century, the fire regime in Australia’s northern savannas consisted of a patchy mosaic of regular (early dry season), low intensity grass fires. More recently, however, with increased pastoralism and reduced traditional land management, large areas are now susceptible to high intensity and late season fires. Although low intensity fires have a negligible effect on Eucalyptus demographics and grass biodiversity, high intensity fires typically destroy trees and reduce both the availability of productivity of many native grasses. The problem for the Gouldian finch is that they are specialised granivores (seed-eaters) that feed almost exclusively on re-sensitive native grasses, and the frequent hot fires that move through their habitat each year are severely reducing the availability and diversity of grass seeds, causing the finches to starve. Current fire research We have recently started a cross-disciplinary project that combines a number of research elds (e.g. fire ecology, nutrition, behaviour, GIS mapping, etc.), as well as a number of researchers and conservation agencies, to experimentally determine exactly how fire affects the Gouldian finch. Importantly, this work will help us come up with new conservation plans and initiatives to reduce wild fires and promote seeding grasses to enhance current Gouldian finch populations. We will update this page as we discover new findings… You can also keep up to date with recent findings by following our blog.