Boom and Bust – Bird Stories for a Dry Country

Boom and Bust – Bird Stories for a Dry Country


Have you ever pondered how our birds have adapted to the ‘boom and bust’ flood/rain and drought/dry cycle of inland Australia? How excessive heat and an abundance of water that never occur at the same time might have influenced the habits and adaptations of our birds? All too often, we think of the traditional four seasons of the Northern Hemisphere, and recount the bird breeding, feeding, growing and migrating cycle of birds to fit that regular, cyclical and very predictable pattern.

I have just finished reading a book titled Count“Boom and Bust – Bird Stories for a Dry Country” written by Libby Robin, Robert Heinsohn and Leo Joseph (2009). This book contains a number of amusing case studies and stories written in a very readable manner that outlines a number of vastly different birds and how their behaviours have changed and developed to fit our unique inland ecosystems. Read about both unique and familiar birds like the Barcoo Bantam, the Pelican, the Emu and the Zebra Finch.

My favourite chapter is the one that outlines the recent search by mankind for the elusive Night Parrot. No-one truly knows if the Night Parrot exists in 2010. “The record shows that the night parrot has gone bust, but not yet turned to dust. A few fugitives remain, protected by the desert”. (page 142).

In 1990 and again 2006, the body of a dead night parrot has been found in remote desert plains. However, there have been no accurately confirmed live sightings of this bird since 1880. Has this bird disappeared from our landscape, or will a live specimen be flushed out in the future? Has the impact of recent settlement busted this bird into near extinction, or will it boom again in some remote location?

How can we carefully preserve our boom and bust cycle to ensure that further species do not simply vanish from our ecosystems?

Making overt efforts to preserve our inland waterways and their associated eco-systems is one way we can ensure birds will continue to flourish in our harsh and vast land. Will we get it right and see another live night parrot, or will other birds also simply vanish?