Are we underestimating the threat to Australia’s migratory land birds?

Abstract

Few migratory land birds in Australia are currently regarded as threatened or near threatened. In contrast, many of Australia’s migratory seabirds and shorebirds are threatened or near threatened, with most of the latter being added over the last two decades. Furthermore, many long-distance migratory land birds that breed in North America and Europe have experienced major declines, probably due to threats in their breeding or wintering grounds or both. I suggest that knowledge of our migratory land birds is limited, and almost non-existent outside their breeding areas. Some are already declining and I predict that others will decline in the near future. The priority now is to increase our knowledge of the locations of major wintering areas in northern Australia of land birds that breed in the south, and to study their ecology and behaviour outside the breeding season. We also have limited knowledge of how migrants in Australia prepare physiologically and behaviourally for migration. If they migrate in large hops, then we need to find and protect departure, refuelling and arrival sites.