SYDNEY, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Australia's threatened bird populations have on average halved in the past three decades, highlighting the importance of conservation measures for the country's wildlife, according to a latest research.
Threatened migratory shorebirds have suffered the largest decrease, dropping by 70 percent on average in the past 30 years, according to figures from a major government-backed bird-monitoring initiative released on Wednesday.
"So far the index combines data from 180,000 individual surveys, from 35 monitoring programs on 43 bird species and subspecies, and we are constantly adding new data as it becomes available," lead researcher Dr Elisa Bayraktarov from the University of Queensland said in a statement.
The index so far includes data on about one-third of Australia's threatened birds, she said.
The index is an important tool to draw attention to the state of Australia's threatened birds, and which groups and regions are doing better or worse, said Dr James O'Connor, head of research at the BirdLife Australia conservation group.
"But it isn't all bad news, for example, although Victoria suffered a lot of historical declines due to habitat loss, since 2000 land-based birds have been relatively stable in Victoria," he said.
"With sufficient resources and commitment, conservation programs work can halt declines and even lead to improvements for some species.
"Great examples of conservation working are the programs on the Helmeted Honeyeater in Victoria and the Kangaroo Island Glossy Black Cockatoo in South Australia."
Threatened birds are "just the beginning" and monitoring data for threatened mammal and plant indices are also being assembled, according to the researchers.
