1. How (not) to find the Night Parrot
Mike Bamford
(Bamford Consulting Ecologists)
and
Allan Burbidge
(Department of Parks and Wildlife)

2. The problem: how to conserve an apparently rare bird when we can confirm neither presence nor absence....when we don’t know how to survey for it and know little of its biology
The solution: have a go where it was last seen .....Minga Well (assumes they are still there)

3. The problem: bit of survey history/background
The solution: have a go where it was last seen .....Minga Well (assumes they are still there)

4. FMG Cloudbreak, Fauna investigations for Environmental Impact Assessment. 12th April....3 birds at Minga Well and bird(s) possibly heard at Moojarri Well
Close to Fortescue Marshes, a vast area of samphire marsh with surrounding spinifex, in a region with regular unconfirmed sightings

5. The Minga Well sighting….
Provided an opportunity for follow-up work shortly after a good sighting; but far from the first attempt in WA.
The Minga Well sighting….
WA Museum. Has regularly investigated sightings.
DEC (DPaW). Public program; surveys in the 1990s.
RAOU (Birdlife Aust). Search along the Canning Stock Route in 1987; regular
remote area expeditions.
Consultants. A large, skilled workforce in remote areas.
Private birdwatchers.

6. But where to start and what to do....
As part of development of the Cloudbreak mine, FMG supported the follow-up work to try to re-locate the birds and investigate survey methods. Stated aims to locate Night Parrots, work out how to survey for them and learn about their biology
But where to start and what to do....
and what have we learnt in the process of not finding Night Parrots?

7. If at first you don’t succeed
If at first you don’t succeed..... A range of techniques trialled with annual+ surveys over the period 2005 to To document techniques especially important with recent events in SW Queensland.
In seven surveys ( ), over 300 person-days (24 hour days) in the field and literally 100s of hours spent in various endeavours!

8. Trial and imagination...
Waterhole observations, aural and audio surveys, call playback, spotlighting, human-chain searching, drift-fences and walk-in traps, searching for feathers in the nests of other birds, walking around looking for evidence, searching for foraging signs,
mist-netting, motion-sensitive cameras at waterholes, motion-sensitive cameras on drift-fences, night-vision binoculars ....even bird-seed!

9. When to survey?...when you don’t know when to survey
Trips carried out at different times of the year to give seasonal spread. End of dry season, wet season, end of wet season, and continuous with motion-sensitive cameras

10. Fortescue Marshes north layout

11. Waterhole observations.... Night Parrots drink; don’t they?
Pre-sunrise and post-sunset with people at as many sites as possible; up to five waterholes simultaneously.
Targeted hot, dry periods when it was expected birds will need to drink.
No records. Drink rarely? Drink late? What of Andrew’s observations? We could only do a few weeks a year so do they drink seasonally? Dispersing juveniles only? So many questions.

12. Aural surveys.... These work for the Ground Parrot
Pre-sunrise and post-sunset with people listening at as many sites as possible; across the marshes, the spinifex/samphire ecotone and into the Chichesters. Aural surveys combined with spot-lighting travelling between sites.
A few odd calls but no definitive records. Calling might be very seasonal or only under specific conditions. Again, we were limited by time.

13. Human chain searching....
People 10m apart, dragging a rope between, mostly on spinifex/samphire ecotone where spinifex “old”. 85ha searched in May 2005.
Combined with looking for “evidence” such as feathers in nests. Later trips covered longer distances but less rigorous. Also at night. November 2009; NP flushed?

14. Foraging signs
Ground Parrots leave distinctive foraging signs; do Night Parrots?
November 2007; combination of a bird flying past at night, strange calls and distinctively-chewed spinifex seed heads.
Bird unknown, calls were Pink-eared Duck, foraging signs were Pseudomys desertor.

15. Other foraging signs
Some museum specimens have mud in the upper mandible….something was digging up Eleocharis bulbs.

16. Traps and nets
Range of traps (some standard, some not) with and without drift-fences.
November 2007; 1220 mist-net hours equivalent to
100km mist-net for one hour. All night netting and used a made-up lure call
Caught a Ghost Bat.

17. Time and technology
Watching, listening and trapping rely on people and are time-limited.
move to motion-sensitive cameras and call detection but continued with traditional approaches.

18. Cameras on waterholes November 2009; every known waterhole for over 60km. 4097 photos over 8 nights.

19. Cameras not on Waterholes Cameras set on three-way driftfences in old spinifex, ecotone and marshes. Twenty locations at up to 1km spacing. Operated for a few months in 2010 and much of camera-nights. Bird seed at some cameras.

20. Photos of the right sorts of animals 194,125 images in six months
Photos of the right sorts of animals 194,125 images in six months. 10,364 images of Little Button-quail, 1,992 of Brown Quail, 13 of goannas. Seed attracted birds and rodents but no parrots

21. ARUs (autonomous recording units) Can deploy in remote sites for long periods Analysis dependent on good reference calls or experienced observer Manual review of calls takes time. Combine with call-lures?
Eastern Ground Parrot

22. What have we learnt about the Night Parrot?
Assuming it is present, it is hard to find;
- May drink rarely (metabolic water meets most water requirements when living as a terrestrial, nocturnal omnivore?). Dispersing juveniles?
May call rarely. Does nothing to give itself away.
Sedentary, migratory or nomadic?
But: are we looking in the right place,
at the right time, and in the right way?

23. Where to next?
Urgent need to test and evaluate techniques at a site where birds known to occur Camera traps and ARUs cost effective in the field Need to use a range of techniques
Uncertainties mean it is important to have experienced, skilled personnel (e.g. know bird calls of region)

24. And what do we most want to know?
How to be able to reliably survey for it (confirm presence or absence!)
Understand why it has declined, why it manages to persist and what processes
(fire, feral predators, weeds, introduced herbivores, over-abundant native species….)
are affecting it.

25. FMG and many, many colleagues ………………………………….…it is out there somewhere
Acknowledgements
FMG and many, many colleagues
………………………………….…it is out there somewhere