Superb fairywrens have a special significance for the Knowler family because 25 years ago they skipped ahead of us as we were walking down the mudstone drive of what would ultimately become our new home.
We had been house-hunting after arriving in Hobart from Queensland, and we like to think the fairywrens somehow influenced our decision to buy. As bird-lovers, what better bird to welcome us to a new neighbourhood? As a bonus, on that first inspection we also saw a scarlet robin on the lawn.
Both the fairywrens and the robin have been the mainstay of our garden birdwatching over the years so it came as a shock when I read last month that the wrens’ survival across Australia is giving cause for concern. In fact, ornithologists say they could become extinct within a few decades, mainly because of rising temperatures.
Scientists tracking fairywren populations in Canberra have found climate impacts are starting to affect them. The research is actually derived from nearly 30 years of weekly bird observations recording the lives of fairywrens in the city’s botanic gardens, noting how changing weather patterns are impacting on them.
The fairywren is one of Australia’s most popular birds, winning the 2012 and 2021 Birdlife Australia bird of the year contest. However, researchers warn it might be a “canary in a coalmine” for many lesser-known species facing similar climate-change threats.
James Cook University ecologist Martijn van de Pol was the senior author of the study, conducted with the Australian National University and Hainan University in China. The paper found extinction was likely to happen within the next 30–40 years.
“Using various climate models, we found that human-induced climate change is likely to cause a high risk of population extinction within the next 50 years, even with optimistic emission scenarios,” Van de Pol said.
The research draws on longtime observations by researcher Helen Osmond which showed that impacts of different types of weather had a cumulative effect on the birds’ survival prospects.
“What’s really dangerous for these birds is that there are all these climate impacts throughout the year and together they start to add up and affect them,” Van de Pol said.
The wrens suffered low breeding success during dry springs and reduced adult survival following unusually warm winters and hot summers.
Superb fairywrens – also known as blue wrens in Tasmania – occur across south-eastern Australia and, in addition to the threat of rising temperatures, their small size makes them vulnerable to predators like cats and, on the mainland, foxes. Urban development has also encroached on their habitat.
The day I read the report a clan of fairywrens came scampering across my lawn as usual. I find it hard to grasp that 25 years on from first seeing the fairywrens in our garden, scientists are now predicting these beautiful birds could become extinct within just a few decades