The Barren Grounds Bird Observatory was a bird observatory situated in the

Barren Grounds Nature Reserve The Barren Grounds Nature Reserve is a protected nature park located in the Southern Highlands region of New South Wales, Australia. The reserve is situated east of Budderoo National Park, and west of the city of Kiama. The reserve can also be ...

on the escarpment of the Southern Highlands of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It was opened in 1982 by Birds Australia as Australia's third bird observatory, in order to provide a base for the study and enjoyment of the birds of the area. The natural vegetation of Barren Grounds is

heathland A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler ...

. Birds of note include the

eastern ground parrot The eastern ground parrot (''Pezoporus wallicus'') of Australia is one of only five ground-dwelling parrots in the world, the others being its closest relatives, the western ground parrot (''Pezoporus flaviventris''), the extremely rare night par ...

and the

eastern bristlebird The eastern bristlebird (''Dasyornis brachypterus'') is a species of bird in the bristlebird family, Dasyornithidae. It is endemic to Australia. Its natural habitats are temperate forests, temperate shrubland, and temperate grassland. It is thre ...

. In 2004, for basically economic reasons, the observatory was closed and Birds Australia's association with Barren Grounds ended.

References

Organisations based in New South Wales Ornithological organisations in Australia Bird observatories in Australia 1982 establishments in Australia 2004 disestablishments in Australia {{ornithology-stub