Size Isn’t Everything: The Importance of Small Remnants to the Conservation of Woodland Birds in Australia

There is no doubt that the successful long-term conservation of Australian birds will depend substantially on our ability to conserve and manage large, contiguous areas of their habitat. However, the legacy of unplanned and extensive clearing in the temperate agricultural zones is that few such areas remain in much of eastern, southern and south-western Australia. In these regions in particular, there is a growing realisation that the protection of our remaining large areas of native vegetation will not alone be enough to ensure the long-term persistence of all the bird species which historically inhabited such regions. Remnants, large or small, are not closed systems, and bird populations do not respond to them as such. We must begin to view the conservation of our woodland birds from a landscape perspective, especially in agricultural landscapes where they are particularly threatened. This means broadening the conservation focus to include the agricultural matrix itself as well as the smaller patches of native vegetation— even scattered paddock trees—embedded within it.