![Rock Parrot Cape Leeuwin 2 email](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Rock_Parrot_Cape_Leeuwin_2_email.jpg)
The Southern Yorke Peninsula Important Bird Area is a tract of land consisting of most of the south-western tip of the
Yorke Peninsula
The Yorke Peninsula is a peninsula located northwest and west of Adelaide in South Australia, between Spencer Gulf on the west and Gulf St Vincent on the east. The peninsula is separated from Kangaroo Island to the south by Investigator Strai ...
in
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
about west of
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
.
Description
The
Important Bird Area
An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations.
IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...
(IBA) includes most of the south-western tip of Yorke Peninsula including land protected by statute, privately owned or declared as crown land and which usually has natural habitat. Outside this area, most of the Yorke Peninsula's native vegetation has been cleared for
grazing
In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to roam around and consume wild vegetations in order to convert the otherwise indigestible (by human gut) cellulose within grass and other ...
and
cropping. The land in the IBA is an undulating plain, bordered by coastal cliffs, with
calcareous
Calcareous () is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of scientific disciplines.
In zoology
''Calcareous'' is used as an adje ...
sand
Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of s ...
s and
loam
Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–sil ...
s forming
dune
A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, f ...
s over
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
bedrock. Habitats include
intertidal
The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of Marine habitat, habitats with var ...
ecosystem
An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...
s,
beach
A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shel ...
es,
heath
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 ...
lands,
mallee woodlands and
salt lake
A salt lake or saline lake is a landlocked body of water that has a concentration of salts (typically sodium chloride) and other dissolved minerals significantly higher than most lakes (often defined as at least three grams of salt per litre). ...
s. Temperatures average in winter and in summer with an average annual rainfall of .
Criteria for nomination as an IBA
The site has been identified by
BirdLife International
BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...
as an IBA because it supports populations of
malleefowl
The malleefowl (''Leipoa ocellata'') is a stocky ground-dwelling Australian bird about the size of a domestic chicken (to which it is distantly related). It is notable for the large nesting mounds constructed by the males and lack of parental ca ...
,
fairy tern
The fairy tern (''Sternula nereis'') is a small tern which is native to the southwestern Pacific. It is listed as " Vulnerable" by the IUCN and the New Zealand subspecies is " Critically Endangered".
There are three subspecies:
* Australian f ...
s,
western whipbird Western whipbird may refer to the following bird species and subspecies:
* ''Psophodes nigrogularis'', the black-throated whipbird
** subspecies: ''Psophodes nigrogularis nigrogularis'', 'western heath'
** subspecies: ''Psophodes nigrogularis obero ...
s,
rock parrot
The rock parrot (''Neophema petrophila'') is a species of grass parrot native to Australia. Described by John Gould in 1841, it is a small parrot long and weighing with predominantly olive-brown upperparts and more yellowish underparts. Its h ...
s and
purple-gaped honeyeater
The purple-gaped honeyeater (''Lichenostomus cratitius'') is a species of bird in the family Meliphagidae. It is endemic to semi-arid southern Australia, where it inhabits Mallee, tall heath and associated low eucalypt woodland.Menkhorst, P., ...
s.
Associated protected areas
While the IBA has no statutory status, it does overlap the following
protected areas
Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...
declared by the
South Australian government
The Government of South Australia, also referred to as the South Australian Government, SA Government or more formally, His Majesty’s Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of South Australia. It is modelled o ...
:
Innes National Park and
Warrenben Conservation Park
Warrenben Conservation Park (formerly Warrenben National Park) is a protected area located in the Australian state of South Australia on the Yorke Peninsula of about north-east of Marion Bay.
The conservation park consists of land in section ...
.
[
]
See also
*List of birds of South Australia
South Australia is a state in Australia with 487 species of bird recorded.
This list is based on the 1996 classification by Sibley and Monroe (though there has been a recent (2008) extensive revision of Australian birds by Christidis and Bo ...
References
Important Bird Areas of South Australia
Yorke Peninsula
{{SouthAustralia-geo-stub