The King Island scrubtit and King Island brown thornbill are two tiny birds found only on King Island. Both are island subspecies of more common mainland birds, but on King Island their populations have fallen to extremely low levels. The scrubtit is listed as Critically Endangered, and the brown thornbill as Endangered, yet very little is known about how many remain or how best to protect them.

Why are they in trouble?

Severe habitat loss

More than two-thirds of King Island’s native vegetation has been cleared, leaving only small patches of suitable habitat.

Fire and habitat damage

Wildfires can destroy large areas of remaining habitat in a single event, as seen in key scrubtit strongholds.

Very small populations

With so few confirmed sightings, both birds are at high risk of local extinction.

Why is it difficult?

They are extremely rare

There have been very few confirmed sightings over several decades.

Their habitat is highly fragmented

Remaining habitat occurs in small, scattered patches that are hard to survey.

We know very little about their ecology

Especially for the brown thornbill, basic information about habitat needs is missing.

What we are doing?

We have undertaken the first systematic surveys on King Island for both of these critically endangered birds. Our surveys have provided the richest data on both the scrubtit and thornbill available in contemporary times, and our efforts represent the largest systematic survey of these species ever undertaken.

Photos: Tim Paasila