Birds in backyards survey - Spring/Summer 2006/07 results
Results update on spring/summer 2006/07 Backyard Bird Survey
Summary
Nine hundred and eighty-seven surveys were submitted during the spring/summer period of the 2006/07 Birds in Backyards survey. Of these, 272 submissions were 20-minute one-day surveys from urban backyards and urban parks. This number is rather lower than the 341 surveys submitted for the spring and summer of 2005/06. However the rankings of species abundance are similar between the two years and these are presented below.
Percentage of gardens in which each species was recorded in one-week surveys during spring and summer
| Species | 2006/07 | 2005/06 |
|---|---|---|
| Rainbow Lorikeet | 75 | 74 |
| Australian Magpie | 64 | 67 |
| Common (Indian) Miner | 62 | 52 |
| Noisy Miner | 59 | 69 |
| Pied Currawong | 59 | 58 |
| Sulphur-crested Cockatoo | 46 | 44 |
| Spotted Turtledove | 45 | 48 |
| Red Wattlebird | 43 | 44 |
| Crested Pigeon | 43 | 51 |
| Magpie-lark | 42 | 38 |
| Laughing Kookaburra | 38 | 41 |
| House Sparrow | 35 | 35 |
| Australian Raven | 35 | 30 |
| Galah | 32 | 33 |
| Common Koel | 30 | 39 |
| Grey Butcherbird | 29 | 31 |
| Little Wattlebird | 28 | 20 |
| Crimson Rosella | 27 | 33 |
| Willie Wagtail | 27 | 25 |
| Australian King-parrot | 21 | 30 |
|
Red-whiskered Bulbul |
20 | 21 |
| Eastern Rosella | 19 | 18 |
| New Holland Honeyeater | 18 | 15 |
| Common Blackbird | 16 | 15 |
| Superb Fairy-wren | 15 | 13 |
| Satin Bowerbird | 13 | 5 |
| Silvereye | 13 | 18 |
| Eastern Spinebill | 12 | 5 |
| Common Starling | 12 | 6 |
| Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo | 10 | 7 |
Eastern Whipbirds
There have been a number of inquiries concerning the status of the Eastern Whipbird around Sydney, and their distribution as determined from volunteer surveyors is shown in the map below. The yellow dots indicate their presence in urban gardens while the red dots are from surveys of bushland areas.
Survey methods
Several volunteers are providing very regular surveys on both a weekly and daily basis. These enable us to evaluate the two survey methods, and the observations of one such observer are shown below.
Percentage of surveys in which each species was recorded in the garden of one Tamarama observer. She has submitted 63 one-week surveys and 305 20-min surveys!
| Species | Week | 20-min |
|---|---|---|
| Rainbow Lorikeet | 100.0 | 46.6 |
| Noisy Miner | 100.0 | 41.0 |
| New Holland Honeyeater | 85.5 | 35.4 |
| Red Wattlebird | 85.5 | 32.5 |
| Pied Currawong | 98.4 | 30.2 |
| Common (Indian) Miner | 24.2 | 11.5 |
| Common Koel | 14.5 | 5.2 |
| Silvereye | 22.6 | 4.6 |
| Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike | 16.1 | 3.6 |
| Common Starling | 4.8 | 3.0 |
| Australian Magpie | 19.4 | 2.0 |
| Red-whiskered Bulbul | 12.9 | 1.3 |
| Willie Wagtail | 41.9 | 1.0 |
| Spotted Turtledove | 19.4 | 0.7 |
| Laughing Kookaburra | 11.3 | 0.3 |
| Australian Raven | 1.6 | 0.3 |
| Brown Honeyeater | 1.6 | 0.3 |
| Grey Butcherbird | 3.2 | 0.0 |
| Cockatiel | 1.6 | 0.0 |
| House Sparrow | 1.6 | 0.0 |
|
Magpie-lark |
1.6 | 0.0 |
As expected, species are more likely to be recorded in a garden over a week's casual observation, than in a fixed 20-min survey. However, the two methods provide very similar results in terms of ranking species according to the frequency with which they are seen on surveys. (One notable exception is the Willie Wagtail which was detected around every second week, but which hardly ever turned up in a 20-min surveye!)
Please continue submitting your data, as they are clearly useful, whichever method you use!
