Grey-crowned Babblers in southeast Queensland, 2009
A project of Birds Queensland
During 2009 Birds Queensland is undertaking this project to establish the present status of Grey-crowned Babblers in southeast Queensland, and to compare this with their previous distribution.
Eastern Grey-crowned Babblers, Pomatostomus temporalis temporalis, are now
- extinct in South Australia,
- endangered in Victoria, and
- threatened in New South Wales.
This decline in the Babbler population appears to be gradually moving north. In southern Queensland, while perhaps Babblers are holding-on west of the Great Dividing Range, they seem to be declining in the south-east, but we don’t know their exact status and how it has changed.
BQ members and others are asked to search for Babblers, count them, record all sightings, and report them.
The Birds Australia Continuing Atlas is doing the mapping and other GIS work for us at no cost, as the Grey-crowned Babbler is nationally a Near-threatened Species. We will also actively search locations where they were reported in Atlas 1, but not Atlas 2 or later. If they are not there, maybe we can see why.
The study area is east of the Great Dividing Range, that is, roughly east of Toowoomba and Crow’s Nest, and north to roughly Gympie.
(click on image for a version at 130KB jpg)
How can you contribute?
If you’re an Atlasser:
When you encounter Grey-crowned Babblers on your normal Atlas surveys, please count them and include the number in your survey. One-off sightings should be reported as Incidental Atlas records, including the number of birds in the group. Submit these to the Atlas as usual.
If you’re not an Atlasser, please note
- the date,
- the exact location (including latitude and longitude, using a GPS if possible),
- the number of birds, and
- anything else you think is interesting or likely to be relevant (e.g. are they nesting? feeding young out of the nest?);
- also the observer’s contact information (name, phone number, email (especially), postal address).
Please report these details to Margaret Cameron:
By post: |
Margaret Cameron, Grey-crowned Babblers Project, Birds Queensland, |
By phone: |
(07) 3282 9151, or |
By email: |
These sightings will be submitted to the Atlas, using the Birds Queensland Atlas number. (Even if you are an Atlasser, you can submit Babbler records this way.)
We should then have details of the situation during Atlas 1, Atlas 2, and 2009.
Obviously Grey-crowned Babblers have declined - in fact vanished - in some areas, which are now covered with houses and industry. They may well be holding their own in the country outside the urban and outer urban areas. There may be other areas in the "peri-urban fringe" - what in Victoria is called "rural residential" - where they still are, and where appropriate land management can preserve the quality of the habitat they need. Protecting and improving habitat have proved helpful in Victoria.
For enquiries about insurance for Birds Queensland members, please contact For enquiries about insurance for Atlassers, please contact Birds Australia.
Let’s make this project a success!
Participation is easy (everyone can identify Babblers and you can do it as part of normal birdwatching), enjoyable (everyone likes them), and obviously worthwhile – it would be terrible to lose such an iconic bird.
Margaret Cameron
17 August 2009
