Spring bird communities of a high-altitude area of the Gloucester Tops, New South Wales

Abstract

Annual spring surveys between 2010 and 2016 in a 5000-ha area in the Gloucester Tops in New South Wales recorded 71 bird species. All the study area was at altitudes >1100 m. The monitoring program was carried out with involvement of a team of volunteers, who regularly surveyed 21 1-km transects, for a total of 289 surveys. The study area was within the Barrington Tops and Gloucester Tops Key Biodiversity Area (KBA). The trigger species for the KBA listing was the Rufous Scrub-bird Atrichornis rufescens , which was found to have a widespread distribution in the study area, with an average Reporting Rate (RR) of 56.5%. Another species cited in the KBA nomination, the Flame Robin Petroica phoenicea , had an average RR of 12.6% but with considerable annual variation. Although the Flame Robin had a widespread distribution, one-third of all records came from just two of the 21 survey transects. Thirty-seven bird species had RRs >4% in the study area and were distributed across many transects. Of these, 20 species were relatively common, with RRs >20%, and they occurred in all or nearly all of the survey transects.