A dystopian future for our native birds was spread out before me on a recent trip to New Zealand to attend the wedding of my great niece.
What I saw in New Zealand was in sharp contrast to another outdoors wedding I attended, by coincidence, a few weeks later in Launceston.
Although this tale of two weddings might have had a common, happy theme in seeing two young couples setting out on a new course in their lives, it raised questions to cloud my day. This was nothing to do with the weddings themselves but the physical environment in which they both took place.
Always the birdwatcher, I couldn’t resist casting my eyes to the skies during both ceremonies looking for birds. In New Zealand I was in for a big disappointment – all the birds on the farm in the Southern Alps where the wedding took place were introduced species, except for a swamp harrier which swooped at one point to take a close look at the proceedings.
In contrast, the wedding vows ringing out high on a hill along the Tamar Valley north of Launceston were accompanied by the songs of at least three endemic Tasmanian species, along with the sweet notes of a singing magpie.
For the avid birdwatcher used to being surrounded by native birds in the Hobart suburbs, it comes as a bit of a shock to visit New Zealand and see a landscape dominated by imported species. Yes, we have blackbirds, starlings, house sparrows, goldfinches and greenfinches in Tasmania but they largely are outnumbered, and out-sung, by our native birds, 12 species of which are found nowhere else on earth.
Over a large swathe of New Zealand the situation is reversed. It is the introduced species that dominate and, certainly in my experience, the native birds are hard to find.
To see New Zealand birds that were once common before the arrival of Europeans, trips have to be made to outlying islands that are free of introduced species.
On the north and south islands of New Zealand it appears the native birds have been unable to compete for food with these imports. The largescale introduction of alien vegetation has also favoured European birds which in their home nations rely on these shrubs and trees for food and nesting sites.
More troubling has been the impact of introduced mammals to lands which historically only had two mammal species, both bats. Stoats, ferrets, feral cats and even possums – which eat eggs – are taking a huge toll on native birds.
Not so in Tasmania, as soon became apparent during the outdoors Launceston wedding, on a leafy property with views of the winding Tamar River. The chattering call of a yellow-throated honeyeater rang out from a clump of wattles. On a sunny winter’s afternoon the songs soon became a symphony. Green rosellas, crescent honeyeaters, a yellow wattlebird and then the flute-like song of the magpie sending newly-weds Ashley and Kristen Stanton on their way.