Central Gippsland Bird Studies

"Monitoring of the bird communities of Rotamah Island"

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Background:

Rotamah Island is home to one of the four long-standing bird observatories in Australia and is a base for research into, and education about, Australia's birds and their conservation. Various banding studies have been conducted over the last 22 years since the observatory's inception in 1980.

A lot of banding was done up until the late 1980's with smaller amounts since then. This has provided the opportunity to obtain valuable long term data by the recapture of older birds.

The island was farmland until 1977 and was about 60% cleared but most of this has now regrown and the island is now about 95% revegetated. These regrowth areas have the ability to provide useful information about the use of regrowth habitats by native birds and the rate at which native birds will return to an area after livestock are removed.

The Observatory is self-funded from donations and runs the building as a guesthouse for the public and as an education centre for school and other groups. Rotamah is an excellent base for the promotion of Australian birds and their conservation.

Aim:

• To continue a long-term banding project on the bush birds of Rotamah Island, contributing to information on their longevity, site fidelity, local movements and population size as well as general information on the sexing, aging and moult of species.

• To look at differences in bird communities in different discrete habitats, and differences in species assemblages between older mixed forest and newer, single-species regrowth forests on the island.

• To demonstrate bird banding as a research tool to school and community groups visiting the Island for educational or recreational purposes.

Method:

Mist nets are used to trap bush birds for banding at a variety of sites within the study area. Information is collected on various aspects of their biology as well as the capture and recapture rates (relative to trapping effort).

Sites have been established in older mixed forest sites which were present, essentially as they are now, more than twenty years ago, when the island was a low-intensity farm.

The catch rates and diversity of species will be compared with newer regrowth single-species forests of Melaleuca, Monotoca and Leptospermum.

Site:

Rotamah Island and Little Rotamah Island are within The Lakes National Park and the adjacent coastal strip is within the Gippsland Lakes Coastal Park.

Banding on the Island is conducted in different habitats at a number of sites.

Project supervisor: Don Ripper - Banders: Don Ripper and Jim Reside.