Birdlife Magazine March 2018 - Ode to the Ibis - food for thought only

[Jean Casburn <>]

This morning on Radio for the Print Handicapped I heard a reading from the above magazine. The article by Shaun Dooley was “Ode to the Ibis” (March 2018) was mostly about the eastern states distribution of Ibis and potential decline of the species as a result of climate change and our use of water etc.

This set me thinking about the collection of data Australia wide not only for this species but for other species as well. From my limited experience in talking to people in various places I feel distressed that there seems to be little communication between all of the bodies collecting data and therefore perhaps a skewed analysis of bird numbers.  While there may be declining numbers for example of Ibis in NSW, there appear to be very large numbers of Ibis in Queensland and northern and other states.

Coastal migrant bird watchers tend to send their information to Birdlife Australia.  Individuals conducting long term studies record and keep their results to themselves, perhaps for future use.

CSIRO and other research bodies perhaps send their findings to various gazettes and other research bodies, and most likely not to Birdlife or EBird. 

Next is EBird with an international collection – this data is available to anyone who cares to use it.

Does anybody take all of these collections into account in their summations and predictions of Australian bird species?

Jean