South-east Tasmania Important Bird Area
Encyclopedia
The South-east Tasmania Important Bird Area encompasses much of the land retaining forest
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...

 and woodland
Woodland
Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...

 habitats, suitable for breeding Swift Parrot
Swift Parrot
The Swift Parrot breeds in Tasmania and migrates north to south eastern Australia from Griffith-Warialda in New South Wales and west to Adelaide in the winter. It is related to the rosellas, with the feeding habits of a lorikeet...

s and Forty-spotted Pardalote
Forty-spotted Pardalote
The Forty-spotted Pardalote is one of Australia's rarest birds and by far the rarest pardalote, being confined to the south-east corner of Tasmania.-Description:...

s, from Orford
Orford, Tasmania
Orford is an attractive coastal hamlet situated on the east coast of Tasmania, some 73 kilometres northeast of Hobart. The village is centred around the mouth of the Prosser River, on the southern margin of a substantial coastal inlet called Prosser Bay...

 to Recherche Bay
Recherche Bay
Recherche Bay is located on the extreme south-eastern corner of Tasmania, Australia and was a landing place of the d’Entrecasteaux expedition to find missing explorer La Pérouse...

 in south-eastern Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

Description

This large (3358 km2) Important Bird Area
Important Bird Area
An Important Bird Area is an area recognized as being globally important habitat for the conservation of bird populations. Currently there are about 10,000 IBAs worldwide. The program was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife International...

 (IBA) comprises wet and dry eucalypt
Eucalypt
Eucalypts are woody plants belonging to three closely related genera:Eucalyptus, Corymbia and Angophora.In 1995 new evidence, largely genetic, indicated that some prominent Eucalyptus species were actually more closely related to Angophora than to the other eucalypts; they were split off into the...

 forests containing old growth Tasmanian Blue Gum
Eucalyptus globulus
The Tasmanian Blue Gum, Southern Blue Gum or Blue Gum, is an evergreen tree, one of the most widely cultivated trees native to Australia. They typically grow from 30 to 55 m tall. The tallest currently known specimen in Tasmania is 90.7 m tall...

s or Black Gum
Eucalyptus ovata
Eucalyptus ovata, commonly known as Swamp gum or Black Gum, is a widespread occurring Australian eucalypt.The swamp gum is a small to , medium sized tree, rarely a mallee, with bark that sheds over most of the trunk revealing a smooth, grey, whitish or pinkish-grey surface. The rough bark is...

s, and grass
Grass
Grasses, or more technically graminoids, are monocotyledonous, usually herbaceous plants with narrow leaves growing from the base. They include the "true grasses", of the Poaceae family, as well as the sedges and the rushes . The true grasses include cereals, bamboo and the grasses of lawns ...

y Manna Gum woodlands, as well as suburban residential centres and farmland where they retain large flowering, and adjacent hollow
Tree hollow
A tree hollow or tree hole is a semi-enclosed cavity which has naturally formed in the trunk or branch of a tree. These are predominantly found in old trees, whether living or not...

-bearing, trees. Key tracts of forest within the IBA include Wielangta
Wielangta forest
The Wielangta forest is located in South East Tasmania, Australia. It is notable for its role in a 2006 court case that called into question the effectiveness of Australia's cooperative Commonwealth-State forest management regime known as Regional Forest Agreements.-Environment:The Wielangta forest...

, the Meehan
Meehan Range
The Meehan Range is a prominent geographical feature of steep hills running parallel to the Derwent River on Hobart's eastern shore. It is located in the City of Clarence, Tasmania...

 and Wellington Range
Wellington Range
The Wellington Range is a mountain range in the Tasmania, Australia. The range is mainly composed of dolerite and features evidence of past glaciation. Prominent features include Mount Wellington, Collins Cap, Collins Bonnet via Myrtle Forest, Trestle Mountain, Mount Marian, Mount Charles and Mount...

s, and the Tasman Peninsula
Tasman Peninsula
Tasman Peninsula is located around by road south-east of Hobart, at the south east corner of Tasmania, Australia.-Description:The Tasman Peninsula lies south and west of Forestier Peninsula, to which it is connected by an isthmus called Eaglehawk Neck...

.

Birds

The area has been identified by BirdLife International
BirdLife International
BirdLife International is a global Partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources...

 as an IBA because it contains almost all the breeding habitat of the endangered Swift Parrot on the Tasmanian mainland, several populations of the endangered Forty-spotted Pardalote, as well as good numbers of Flame
Flame Robin
The Flame Robin is a small passerine bird native to Australia. It is a moderately common resident of the coolest parts of south-eastern Australia, including Tasmania. Like the other two red-breasted Petroica robins—the Scarlet Robin and the Red-capped Robin—it is often simply but...

 and Pink Robin
Pink Robin
The Pink Robin is a small passerine bird native to southeastern Australia. Its natural habitats are temperate forests and subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. Like many brightly coloured robins of the Petroicidae family, it is sexually dimorphic...

s, Striated Fieldwren
Striated Fieldwren
The Striated Fieldwren or Calamanthus is a species of bird in the Acanthizidae family, endemic to Australia.-References:* BirdLife International 2004. . Downloaded on 25 July 2007....

s and populations of all of Tasmania’s endemic bird species.
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