Post-Monica bird mortality information?

[Andrew Taylor <>]

If you like back-of-the-envelope arithmetic, here is my estimate of the
post-Monica bird mortality.   Monica crossed the coast at Manangrida
and has significantly weakened by the time it reached Jabiru roughly
300km away.  Suppose the path is 50km wide thats 15000km^2 affected.
I haven't seen relevant  estimates of bird densities but some common
eastern Australian bird species are estimated to have densities of the
order of 1 per hectare.  So suppose 20 birds/hectare in the Top end =
2000  birds/km^2 or 30,000,000 birds in the area affected by Monica.
In the studies of Heron Island Silvereyes, cyclones look to knock the
population back 10-30% .  If you suppose 20% bird mortality from Monica
that would be 6,000,000 birds dead.

Andrew
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