Bird Responses to Targeted Revegetation: 40 Years of HabitatEnhancement at Clarkesdale Bird Sanctuary, Central-westernVictoria

摘要

A program of planting Australian shrubs and trees has been conducted in degradedfarmland at the Clarkesdale Bird Sanctuary (central-western Victoria) since the 1960s, toaddress the issue of declining native birds, as perceived by the late landowner Gordon Clarke.The shrubs and trees were selected to attract birds, and included many species that were notnative to the region. This form of management is often practised by private landholders (atvarious scales), but its effects are rarely documented. Bird surveys were conducted for thisstudy between 1999 and 2001 at 27 sites: 11 in native eucalypt forest on ridges and slopes,13 in planted areas on ridges and slopes, and three in planted areas on river-flats and asmall gully (with three supplementary sites in a pine plantation). Total bird abundance andspecies per count were highest in the planted sites on river-flats and gully, and higher in theplanted sites on ridges and slopes than in native forest on similar topography. Honeyeaters(Meliphagidae), Superb Fairy-wrensMalurits cyaneus, open-country birds, seed-eating birdsand five insectivorous guilds reached their maximum abundance in planted sites. Bark-foraging insectivores, canopy-foraging insectivores, frugivores and a generalist insectivorewere marginally more common in native forest than in planted sites. Introduced birds wereuncommon. Generalised linear modelling showed that total bird abundance was positivelyrelated to the cover of planted native vegetation, native low shrubs and young wattlesAcacia spp. and to the presence of indigenous Cherry Ballart Exocarpos cupressiforrnis.Various guilds showed positive relationships with the cover of planted native vegetation,native low shrubs, young wattles, original old wattles, original old eucalypts and trees withsmall or large hollows. The planting program has provided new habitat for many nativeforest birds. A greater challenge is to address the needs of some uncommon species thathave declined locally, such as the Brown Treecreeper Climacteris picumnus and SpeckledWarbler Chthonicola sagittata.