Tassie’s birds in greatest danger

Tasmania's birds are in the greatest danger of extinction according to a new a paper from researchers at the Universities of Queensland and Charles Darwin and Birdlife International.

"The researchers took the international 'red list' of all birds that were in danger of extinction and applied it to Australia," Senator Brown said.

"They found that if you included external threats Australia's bird life according to the list was declining faster than the rest of the world and if you looked at just internal threats then we met the global average. The trouble is the global average shows a trend towards animal extinctions.

"The Australian birds most threatened according to the red list were in Tasmania.

"However, there is good news. The paper finds that careful and balanced efforts to rid areas of invasive species and restore habitat can move birds down the list. In particular the researchers believe the success of the rabbit cull on Macquarie Island will potentially see some bird species bounce back and improve Australia's red list position.