FACT SHEET 4 -...
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Birds are a vital component in helping you to maximise Natural Resource Management (NRM) on your farm. Birds are known as ‘indicator species’, and a large variety of birds present on your farm can indicate a high diversity of trees, shrubs, mammals, reptiles, frogs and invertebrates. Birds provide many on-farm benefits ranging from agricultural insect pest control to maintaining tree health, which is intimately linked with NRM. Brown Treecreeper (Climacteris picumnus) Status: Vulnerable in NSW. Protected throughout Australia. Description: The Brown Treecreeper ranges from 16 -18 cm in size and is a grey brown bird with black streaking on the lower breast and belly and black bars on the undertail. The face is pale, with a dark line through the eye and a dark crown. Males and Females differ slightly in colouring, with the males displaying patches of black and white streaking on the centre of the upper breast and the females displaying a rufous or white streaking. Call: Single loud whistles ‘spink’, often repeated in contact. Habitat: In the Murrumbidgee Catchment Brown Treecreepers inhabit eucalypt forests and woodlands of inland plains and slopes, also in mallee and river red gum forest. FACT SHEET 4 The Murrumbidgee CMA together with the Grain & Graze project helps you maximise profitability and Natural Resource Management on your farm. Feeding: Brown Treecreepers search for insects on the ground and in trees, by pecking and probing amongst leaf litter, grasses, fallen timber, along trunks and lateral branches. They hop one foot in front of the other through litter and spiralling around tree trunks while foraging. Ants are their primary food source; however these are supplemented with a variety of other insects. Breeding: Local groups of Brown Treecreepers generally include a breeding pair and one or more male subordinates (rarely female). While only the dominant male mates with the female all males (dominate & subordinates) contribute to nest building, feeding the female while incubating and caring for the young. Breeding occurs during late winter through to early summer, nests consist of dried grasses and bark and are usually lined with feathers or fur. Hollows with a diameter greater than 6cm in standing dead or live trees and stumps are essential for nesting as nests are placed within hollows from 1m to 15m above the ground. Did you Know? Brown Treecreepers are both sedentary and highly sociable birds, living and breeding communally. Pairs to groups of up to 12 birds defend their territory all year round. Brown Treecreeper. Photo: Stuart Harris, Canberra Ornithologists Group.
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Transcript of FACT SHEET 4 -...
Birds are a vital component in helping you to maximise Natural Resource Management (NRM) on your farm. Birds are known as ‘indicator species’, and a large variety of birds present on your farm can indicate a high diversity of trees, shrubs, mammals, reptiles, frogs and invertebrates. Birds provide many on-farm benefits ranging from agricultural insect pest control to maintaining tree health, which is intimately linked with NRM.
Brown Treecreeper (Climacteris picumnus) Status: Vulnerable in NSW. Protected throughout Australia. Description: The Brown Treecreeper ranges from 16 -18 cm in size and is a grey brown bird with black streaking on the lower breast and belly and black bars on the undertail. The face is pale, with a dark line through the eye and a dark crown. Males and Females differ slightly in colouring, with the males displaying patches of black and white streaking on the centre of the upper breast and the females displaying a rufous or white streaking. Call: Single loud whistles ‘spink’, often repeated in contact. Habitat: In the Murrumbidgee Catchment Brown Treecreepers inhabit eucalypt forests and woodlands of inland plains and slopes, also in mallee and river red gum forest.
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FACT SHEET 4
The Murrumbidgee CMA together with the Grain & Graze project helps you maximise profitability and Natural Resource Management on your farm.
Feeding: Brown Treecreepers search for insects on the ground and in trees, by pecking and probing amongst leaf litter, grasses, fallen timber, along trunks and lateral branches. They hop one foot in front of the other through litter and spiralling around tree trunks while foraging. Ants are their primary food source; however these are supplemented with a variety of other insects. Breeding: Local groups of Brown Treecreepers generally include a breeding pair and one or more male subordinates (rarely female). While only the dominant male mates with the female all males (dominate & subordinates) contribute to nest building, feeding the female while incubating and caring for the young. Breeding occurs during late winter through to early summer, nests consist of dried grasses and bark and are usually lined with feathers or fur. Hollows with a diameter greater than 6cm in standing dead or live trees and stumps are essential for nesting as nests are placed within hollows from 1m to 15m above the ground.
Did you Know? Brown Treecreepers
are both sedentary and highly sociable birds, living and breeding
communally. Pairs to groups of up to 12 birds defend their territory all year
round.
Brown Treecreeper. Photo: Stuart Harris, Canberra Ornithologists Group.
FACT SHEET 4
How the Murrumbidgee CMA can assist you? • Incentives for protecting and enhancing native remnant vegetation • Incentives for revegetating areas
with local native species • Incentives for establishing wildlife corridors • Providing alternate stock watering
points where wetlands and riparian areas have been fenced off (conditions apply)
How can you help to encourage these birds on your farm? • Retain large trees, especially those with
hollows • Preserve or restore groundcover, including
logs, leaf litter and ground vegetation • Preserve or restore understorey trees and
shrubs • Preserve or restore native vegetation near,
wetlands and dams • Rest areas of native vegetation from grazing • Control feral predators
Benefits of Brown Treecreepers for your farm: • They act as biological pest control for insects • Aid in maintenance of tree health, by feeding on
insects under bark and in tree crevices • Increasing Brown Treecreeper habitat increases
habitat for other beneficial fauna species • Improves on-farm aesthetics • A large Brown Treecreeper population indicates
a healthy stand of native vegetation
References: Morcombe, M., 2000. Field Guide to Australian Birds. Steve Parish, Ar-cherfield. Lindenmayer, D., et al, 2003. Wildlife on farms- How to conserve native animals. CSIRO, Collingwood. Barrett, G., 2000. Birds on Farms – Ecological Management for Agricul-tural Sustainability. Supplement to Wingspan, vol.10,no.4, December 2000. Birds Australia, Hawthorn East. Department of Environment and Conservation (NSW) http://www.threatenedspecies.environment.nsw.gov.au/tsprofile/profile_data.aspx?id=10171&cma=Murrumbidgee
Threats to Brown Treecreepers: • Loss of ground litter • Loss of woodland, forest and mallee
habitat • Fragmentation of woodland habitat • Degradation of habitat, in particular
the loss of tree hollows and fallen timber
• Lack of eucalypt regeneration in woodlands
Potential Brown Treecreeper habitat — Grassy Box Woodland, Mangoplah, NSW (Photo: C. West)
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For further information contact:
��������������������������������Catchment Officer (Grain & Graze) Murrumbidgee CMA Leeton office Ph: (02) 6953 0766 Mob: 0428 265 040 E-mail: [email protected] �
�� ����� ��������������������Catchment Officer (Grain & Graze) Murrumbidgee CMA Henty office Ph: (02) 6929 3555 Mob: 0427 012 862 E-mail: [email protected] �
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Grain and Graze Murrumbidgee partners:
