The Ulladulla to Merimbula Important Bird Area comprises a strip of coastal and subcoastal land stretching along the southern coastline of New South Wales,

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 is an important site for

swift parrot The swift parrot (''Lathamus discolor'') is a species of broad-tailed parrot, found only in southeastern Australia. The species breeds in Tasmania during the summer and migrates north to south eastern mainland Australia from Griffith-Warialda ...

Description

The 2100 km²

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), identified as such 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 ...

, extends for about 250 km between the towns of

Ulladulla Ulladulla is a coastal town in New South Wales, Australia in the City of Shoalhaven local government area. It is on the Princes Highway about south of Sydney, halfway between Batemans Bay to the south and Nowra to the north. Ulladulla has cl ...

and

Merimbula Merimbula is a town on the Merimbula Lake, located on the Far South Coast or Sapphire Coast of New South Wales, Australia. At the , the population was 3,544. The population within 10 km of the Merimbula Post office is over 18,000 people. ...

and extends about 10 km inland from the coast. It is defined by the presence of forests, or forest remnants, of

spotted gum Spotted gum usually refers to the Australian tree species ''Corymbia maculata'' but may also refer to other closely related species within the genus '' Corymbia'' as follows: *''Corymbia citriodora'' (usually referred to as the lemon-scented gum) *' ...

and other flowering

eucalypt Eucalypt is a descriptive name for woody plants with capsule fruiting bodies belonging to seven closely related genera (of the tribe Eucalypteae) found across Australasia: ''Eucalyptus'', '' Corymbia'', '' Angophora'', ''Stockwellia'', ''Allosyn ...

s used by the parrots. It includes forests dominated by

ironbark Ironbark is a common name of a number of species in three taxonomic groups within the genus ''Eucalyptus'' that have dark, deeply furrowed bark. Instead of being shed annually as in many of the other species of ''Eucalyptus'', the dead bark accu ...

s and bloodwoods which are likely to support the parrots in years when the spotted gums are not flowering. Also included are large areas of

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or swine ...

between forest blocks, and small areas of

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

and urban development which contain scattered large flowering trees and remnants of native vegetation in otherwise anthropogenic landscapes. The IBA either encompasses, or partly overlaps with, the

Beowa Beowa, Beaw, Bēow , Beo or Bedwig is a figure in Anglo-Saxon paganism associated with barley and agriculture. The figure is attested in the Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies as they were extended in the age of Alfred, where Beowa is inserted as the s ...

, Biamanga, Bournda, Clyde River,

Eurobodalla Eurobodalla Shire is a local government area located in the South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. The Shire is located in a largely mountainous coastal region and situated adjacent to the ''Tasman Sea'', the Princes Highway and t ...

Gulaga Gulaga, dual-named as Mount Dromedary and also referred to as Mount Gulaga, is mountain located in the South Coast (New South Wales), south coast region of New South Wales, Australia. It rises above the village of Tilba, New South Wales, Centra ...

, Meroo, Mimosa Rocks, Murramarang and

South East Forest National Park The South East Forests National Park is a national park located in between the Monaro and South Coast regions of New South Wales, Australia. The national park is situated southwest of Sydney. It features high quality old growth eucalyptus fore ...

s.BirdLife International. (2012). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Ulladulla to Merimbula. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 2012-01-02.

References

Important Bird Areas of New South Wales South Coast (New South Wales) Coastline of New South Wales {{SouthCoastNSW-geo-stub