• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Distribution map
• Reference and further resources

Taxonomic source(s)
Christidis, L. and Boles, W.E. 2008. Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Australia.
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A. and Fishpool, L.D.C. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Non-passerines. Lynx Edicions BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
A2ac	A2ac; C2a(ii)	A2ac; C2a(i,ii); D1

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2017	Critically Endangered	A2ac
2016	Endangered	C2a(ii)
2012	Endangered	C2a(ii)
2008	Endangered	C2a(ii)
2007	Endangered
2006	Endangered
2004	Endangered
2000	Endangered
1996	Vulnerable
1994	Vulnerable
1988	Threatened

Migratory status	not a migrant	Forest dependency	Does not normally occur in forest
Land mass type	Land-mass type - Australia	Average mass	-

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence breeding/resident (km2)	526,000	medium
Number of locations	11-100	-
Severely Fragmented		-

	Value	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
No. of mature individuals	250-999	medium	estimated	2000
Population trend	Decreasing	medium	estimated	-
Decline (3 years/1 generation past)		-	-	-
Decline (5 years/1 generation past)		-	-	-
Decline (10 years/1 generation past)		-	-	-
Decline (10 years/3 generation future)		-	-	-
Decline (10 years/3 generation past and future)		-	-	-
Number of subpopulations	1	-	-	-
Percentage in largest subpopulation	100	-	-	-
Generation length (yrs)	7.3	-	-	-

Population justification: The population is estimated to vary from between 5,500–7,000 in good years to around 2,000 birds during periods of widespread drought (Baker-Gabb 2002, Garnett et al. 2011). Regular monitoring has recorded a >90% decline in the species’s Victorian stronghold between 2010 and 2015 (Baker-Gabb et al. 2016), and a 93% decline between 2001 and 2014 in its other stronghold in NSW (Wilson et al. 2014).  The TSSC (2015) estimated the total number of mature individuals of Plains-wanderers to be < 1,000 birds in 2015, and so the population size is placed here in the range 250-999 mature individuals.

Trend justification:

A decline of >90% has been detected in the past decade in both of its strongholds, the Riverina of New South Wales and north-central Victoria, due to cultivation, and inappropriate grazing of natural grassland and climatic events (TSSC 2015). The total decline over the past 3 generations (c.22 years) is not known, and as the species will move away from unsuitable areas, part of these reported declines could represent the species moving to new, as yet unfound, sites. However, in the absence of any evidence for this species moving to new areas, the rate of decline in this species may be conservatively suspected to be >80% over the past 3 generations and so is placed here in the range 80-99%.

Country/Territory	Occurrence status	Presence	Resident	Breeding	Non-breeding	Passage
Australia	N	Extant	Yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name
Australia	Riverina Plains
Australia	Boolcoomatta, Bindarrah and Kalkaroo Stations
Australia	Diamantina and Astrebla Grasslands
Australia	Patho Plains

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Artificial/Terrestrial	Arable Land	suitable	non-breeding
Grassland	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	major	resident
Grassland	Temperate	major	resident
Altitude		Occasional altitudinal limits

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Agriculture & aquaculture	Annual & perennial non-timber crops - Agro-industry farming	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Majority (50-90%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Medium Impact: 6
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation, Ecosystem conversion
Agriculture & aquaculture	Livestock farming & ranching - Agro-industry grazing, ranching or farming	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Majority (50-90%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Medium Impact: 6
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation
Biological resource use	Hunting & trapping terrestrial animals - Unintentional effects (species is not the target)	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Negligible declines		Low Impact: 4
		Stresses Species mortality
Climate change & severe weather	Droughts	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Majority (50-90%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Medium Impact: 6
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation, Ecosystem conversion
Climate change & severe weather	Storms & flooding	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Future		Whole (>90%)		Unknown		Unknown
		Stresses Indirect ecosystem effects, Ecosystem degradation
Invasive and other problematic species, genes & diseases	Invasive non-native/alien species/diseases - Vulpes vulpes	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Reduced reproductive success, Species mortality
Pollution	Agricultural & forestry effluents - Herbicides and pesticides	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Unknown		Unknown
		Stresses Species mortality

Purpose	Primary form used	Life stage used	Source	Scale	Level	Timing
Food - human	-	-			Non-trivial	Recent

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2022) Species factsheet: Pedionomus torquatus. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 22/05/2022. Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2022) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 22/05/2022.