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The habitat and timing of breeding of the Critically Endangered Capricorn Yellow Chat Epthianura crocea macgregori were studied over 12 years on the central Queensland coast. The labile breeding season, although summer-autumn dominant, corresponded to the wetter months and inundation of breeding habitat, allowing this bird to breed in any season or month following substantial rainfall, and more than once in a year in response to atypical rainfall events in the drier months. Formation of flocks showed a seasonal pattern, with flock size significantly greater during the post-wet period than during the wet or dry season. Breeding birds were in pairs or family groups, and dry-season flocks were small as the birds dispersed widely across the available dry habitat. The relatively large flocks (20-80) at some sites in the post-wet period (typically 4-5 months after breeding commenced) are postulated to coincide with maturation of young birds. Breeding was observed in grass-sedge swamps on marine plains and supratidal saltmarshes with vegetation taller than 40 cm. Nests were placed low (27 cm ± standard error 7 cm above the ground) in clumps of vegetation that averaged 69 ± 8 cm high, and the height of vegetation supporting dependent young averaged 108 ± 7 cm. Nestlings numbered between two and four (average 2.8 ± 0.2). Capricorn Yellow Chats nested in the same habitat and sites from year to year. In the southern part of their range, their requirement for tall (>40 cm) supratidal vegetation and site-faithfulness suggest that conservation prospects could be enhanced by protection of relatively small patches of breeding habitat. In the northern part of their range, co-existence with livestock grazing suggests that appropriate habitat-tall grass and sedge cover-can be maintained providing stocking rates remain conservative. In general, recognition and improved government protection of tall supratidal saltmarsh, as a distinct entity from shorter saltmarsh with regular tidal influence, would enhance conservation outcomes for endangered fauna. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many granivorous birds of northern Australia, including several species of grassfinches (Estrildidae), have suffered substantial range contractions in the last 50-100 years, apparently as a result of changes in cattle grazing and fire-management regimes. The Crimson Finch Neochmia phaeton was once widespread in woodlands and savannas of north-eastern Australia, including the extensive Fitzroy River Basin, where it was recorded in all the major subcatchments until the middle of last century. However, surveys in 2006-2008 show that it is now confined to a relatively small area in the north-east of the Basin. A tall river grass, Chionachne Chionachne cyathopoda, is an important component--for food and cover--of its habitat. Complex braiding of river channels, as at the confluence of rivers, is typical of the area where the Finches have persisted, possibly because it increases the availability of water and food, and reduces pressure from cattle grazing during the wet season. A recent local loss of the species was noted in one area where landholders used riparian fencing to maintain greater grazing intensity throughout the year, leading to suppression of Chionachne seeding. Thus, although generally favourable for conservation management, riparian fencing can also be used detrimentally. The loss of one local subpopulation of Finches following changed management practices demonstrates that cattle grazing alone, in the absence of changed fire management, has the capacity to alter habitat suitability for granivorous species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regular bird surveys at one site in the marine plain grasslands in the Rockhampton district of the Central Queensland coast, between 2005 and 2011, have recorded the presence of Brown Songlarks Cincloramphus cruralis throughout the year, indicating a sedentary population in this region. This sedentary pattern is at variance with the seasonally dispersive pattern typical for eastern Australia in which Brown Songlarks undergo a regular anticlockwise cycle from south-eastern Australia in summer, up the eastern coast and then spreading across central temperate and subtropical Australia in the winter, before returning to the south-eastern corner. The discovery of a nest with eggs in December 2010 confirmed local breeding by this subpopulation. The relative isolation, local breeding and sedentary nature of this subpopulation raises the possibility that it may be genetically separated from southern and inland Songlarks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]