Bird monitoring in a tropical savanna conservation reserve suggests Noisy Miners Manorina melanocephala and adaptive fire management should be a future management focus

Abstract

Long-term monitoring of bird communities over time can provide important data for management, and the adaptation of that management over time. We examined data from bird surveys across 37 sites sampled in five different years from 2009 to 2017 in a 56,000-ha tropical savanna conservation reserve, in northern Queensland. Because of the limitations of the survey method and the lack of environmental data for sites, we examined broad patterns in the abundance of small- and large-bodied birds, abundance of Noisy Miners Manorina melanocephala, land type, survey year, and time since last fire. There was some variation in bird species richness and abundance across the land types, years sampled and Noisy Miner abundance; however, the clearest pattern was decreasing numbers of small-bodied birds and increasing Noisy Miner abundance, and an association between time since fire (i.e. <3 years, >5 years), Noisy Miner abundance and diversity in other birds. The apparent and potentially compounding interaction of Noisy Miners and fire could be an emerging problem. Future fire management needs to be embedded in a program of targeted question-driven monitoring and adaptive management, to provide more assured approaches to prescribed burning that enhances bird conservation.