Erythrura gouldiae -Frankfurt Zoo -black headed-8a-3cp

The Wyndham Important Bird Area comprises a 28 km² tract of land in the north-east of the

Kimberley region The Kimberley is the northernmost of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy Desert, Great Sandy and Tanami Desert, Tanami deserts ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. The site lies in the Bastion Hills close to the town of Wyndham, a port on the West Arm of the Cambridge Gulf. It is an important site for

Gouldian finch The Gouldian finch (''Chloebia gouldiae''), also known as the Lady Gouldian finch, Gould's finch or the rainbow finch, is a colourful passerine bird that is native to Australia. Taxonomy The Gouldian finch was described by British ornithologi ...

es.

Description

The site is characterised by gently sloping ranges, vegetated with tropical savanna woodlands and grasslands, with

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

outcrops. The woodland has a high density of

cavity Cavity may refer to: Biology and healthcare *Body cavity, a fluid-filled space in many animals where organs typically develop **Gastrovascular cavity, the primary organ of digestion and circulation in cnidarians and flatworms *Dental cavity or too ...

-bearing old-growth eucalypts suitable as finch nest-sites; the grassland provides food for the birds; and the proximity of Wyndham provides reliable sources of drinking water. The area has a

tropical monsoon climate An area of tropical monsoon climate (occasionally known as a sub-equatorial, tropical wet climate or a tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climate) is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category ...

with a mean minimum temperature of 17 °C in July, a mean maximum of 40 °C in November, with the mean annual rainfall of 780 mm falling mainly from November to March.

Birds

The site has been identified as an

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) 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 ...

because it supports the largest known population of

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

Gouldian finches. It also contains populations of,

northern rosella The northern rosella (''Platycercus venustus''), formerly known as Brown's rosella or the smutty rosella, is a species of parrot native to northern Australia, ranging from the Gulf of Carpentaria and Arnhem Land to the Kimberley. It was describe ...

s, white-gaped, yellow-tinted and

bar-breasted honeyeater The bar-breasted honeyeater (''Ramsayornis fasciatus'') is a species of bird in the family Meliphagidae. It is endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, ...

silver-crowned friarbird The silver-crowned friarbird (''Philemon argenticeps'') is a species of bird in the family Meliphagidae. It is endemic to northern Australia. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forest A forest is an area of land domi ...

s, masked and

long-tailed finch The long-tailed finch (''Poephila acuticauda'') is a common species of estrildid finch found in northern Australia, from the Kimberley region to the Gulf of Carpentaria. It is a predominantly fawn-coloured bird with a pale grey head and promine ...

es and yellow-rumped munias.

Finch trapping

Eleven ''Estrildidae'' finch in the Family ''Ploceidae'' are distributed in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Commercial finch trapping in the Kimberley, principally around Wyndham, commenced in 1897. By 1901 finches were trapped around Wyndham and shipped overseas to Europe in consignments of approximately 5,000 by the persons trapping them. All Kimberley finches were partially or fully protected from 1902 under the Western Australian ''Game Act, 1892.'' Commonwealth Customs regulations first introduced in 1911 failed to curb large scale exports by private finch traders until 1932. One of the largest commercial traders of wild caught Kimberley finches in the late 1920s and 1930s was the South Perth Zoo which exploited customs' law to export for 'scientific and educational purposes'. Licenses to trap finches in the Kimberley were first issued in or after 1913 and continued until 15 November 1986 when finch trapping was banned by

Barry Hodge Barry James Hodge (born 16 February 1944) is a former Australian politician who was a Labor Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia from 1977 to 1989, representing the seat of Melville. Hodge was born in Melbourne, but ...

, the environment minister. Trapping of certain finches ceased before 1986: the yellow-rumped mannikin after 15 November 1975 because of its scarcity; the zebra finch after 15 November 1981 because sufficient numbers were sourced from breeding stocks; and the Gouldian finch after 15 November 1981 because of its decline in numbers. Customs regulations in 1960 prohibited the export of live Australian fauna for commercial purposes and strict standards were applied to exports of specimens of native fauna for scientific research or zoological display. In 1971 Australia became a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and in 1976 Australia introduced the Customs (Endangered Species) Regulations to enforce import and export of species covered by CITES.Finch Trapping in the Kimberley, K H Coate and L H Merritt (2015)

References

{{coord, 15, 27, 37, S, 128, 08, 47, E, display=title, region:AU-WA_type:landmark Kimberley (Western Australia) Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands Important Bird Areas of Western Australia