Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L01094:body:0:p10
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L01094
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 32181–35186

de Nord and Lachlan.

Central Flinders Island: The KBA includes a series of conservation reserves and adjacent land with similar habitat on central Flinders Island in Bass Strait. The KBA is defined by the distribution of previously documented breeding forty-spotted pardalotes and nearby similar grassy white gum woodland, though the species is now likely functionally extinct on Flinders Island. Forty-spotted pardalotes were located at three sites: 1) between Walkers Lookout and Lucks Hill in the Darling Range; 2) south-west of East Sugarloaf; and 3) east of Brougham Sugarloaf within Brougham Sugarloaf Conservation Area.

South-east Tasmania: The KBA includes grassy white gum woodland used by the forty-spotted pardalote. The forty-spotted pardalote has been recorded within the KBA since 1986 at Lime Bay, Taroona, Ida Bay, Howden, and Tinderbox Peninsula.

2.6 Population trends
The forty-spotted pardalote is a highly specialised species that has undergone significant population declines, and is now nationally Endangered. Historical records confirm the forty-spotted pardalote once occurred on King Island, Flinders Island, and down the east coast from Bridport to Southport (Higgins & Peter 2002). Despite this seemingly wide distribution, the species was always referred to as being uncommon or rare (Littler 1910; Milledge 1980; Woinarski & Bulman 1985).

The first estimate of the total population size of the forty-spotted pardalote was fewer than 850 birds in eight discrete geographic locations (Rounsevell & Woinarski 1983). A more detailed assessment across the species' entire range in the mid-1980s generated a total population estimate of 3,520 ± 704 birds at six discrete locations (Brown 1986, 1989). During the 1990s a similar population size of 3,840 ± 768 birds was estimated across four of the previous six locations (Bryant 1997; Bryant & Jackson 1999). A re-assessment in 2009 to 2010 generated a total population size estimate of 1,500 ± 300 birds (Bryant 2010), equating to an overall 60% decline in bird numbers across the species' entire range (TSS 2012).

Population surveys of the forty-spotted pardalote are undertaken infrequently (Bryant et al. 2021). The species occurs at a mean density of 2.7 (CI: 2–3.7) birds per hectare, though their density changes in relation to habitat quality (Alves et al. 2019). The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2020 estimated the contemporary population to be approximately 1800 (range 1,400–11,200) mature forty-spotted pardalotes in the wild, but the reliability of this estimate is low and counts are variable (Bryant et al. 2021).

Recent population estimates are lacking from Maria Island, South Bruny Island and mainland Tasmania (Bryant et al. 2021). However, it is likely that the small population continues to decline as a result of ongoing habitat deterioration and fragmentation, introduced predators, competitors, and the ectoparasitic fly (P. longicornis) causing severe nestling mortality (Edworthy 2016b; Edworthy