41st Year Of E. Australia Waterbird Survey Shows YOY Count Down 50%: "Long-Term Significant Decline" Continues

Drier conditions have led to waterbird numbers in eastern Australia plummeting by 50% compared with 2023, one of the country’s largest wildlife surveys has found. Conducted annually since 1983, the eastern Australian waterbird aerial survey is one of the world’s longest continuous bird counts as well as one of the largest by geographical distance covered.

The survey spotted 287,231 birds this year – half the 579,641 birds recorded in 2023. The number of birds in the 2024 report was the 22nd highest in 42 years of the survey, well below the long-term average. The director of the centre for ecosystem science at the University of New South Wales, Prof Richard Kingsford, who leads the aerial surveys, said there was a “wistful optimism” that after wet years associated with the triple La Niña there would be a sustained boost in bird numbers.

“In 2021 and 2022 there was a lot of flooding everywhere, and we know that there were a lot of birds breeding, but we just haven’t seen the same sort of recovery,” he said.

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Amid fears this year about the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, which has devastated wild bird populations internationally, the team also surveilled for instances of mass mortality as a sign of potential outbreaks. “We didn’t find any, which is always a relief,” Kingsford said.

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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/dec/16/waterbird-populations-plunge-dramatically-as-eastern-australia-dries-up