Current view: Data table and detailed info
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., Fishpool, L.D.C., Boesman, P. and Kirwan, G.M. 2016. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 2: Passerines. Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.
IUCN Red List criteria met and history
Red List criteria met
Red List history
| Migratory status |
not a migrant |
Forest dependency |
high |
| Land-mass type |
|
Average mass |
- |
Population justification: The abundance of Golden Bowerbirds is calculated from the density and distribution of birds and the area of climatically suitable habitat at different altitudes in 2016 (Williams et al. 2010a).
Trend justification: The declining trend is derived from annual monitoring undertaken from 2000–2016 (1,970 plots, 62 different locations, at 0–1,500 m; Williams and Fuente 2021), which suggest a 56.8% decline in the total population over the three generations to 2016 but a high interannual variability meant that it was not statistically significant. Also, contrary to models of climate change impact (Williams et al. 2003; Hilbert et al. 2004), the apparent decline was greatest at higher altitude (>850 m) sites with trends at mid-altitude (450–850 m) sites steady. Similarly, although reporting rates declined by 40% between the first Atlas 10 min grids (1977–1981) and in 500-m and 5-km area searches in the second Atlas (1988–2001; Garnett et al. 2003), there was no trend in rates from 500-m area searches between 1999 and 2018 (BirdLife Australia 2020). Regular visits to 82 bowers across the species's range since have noted only three as being abandoned, at 1485 m, 1195 m, and 635 m. However, monitoring of trends in bower occupancy has been complicated by the effects of Cyclones Larry (2006) and Yasi (2011) which destroyed many bower sites and then rendered some unsuitable because the regrowth was too dense (D. Chaplin, G.N. Harrington unpublished, in Williams et al. 2021). Detectability functions were also impacted (Williams and de la Fuente 2021). Evaluating all trends over the past three generations and accounting for fluctuations (particularly in detectability) caused by cyclones, Williams et al. (2021) concluded that the population is expected to have declined at a rate of 20-29% over the past three generations, however the nature of the monitoring and inferences mean that there is much uncertainty. Given the ongoing nature of the threats, the population is suspected to decline at a similar rate in the future.
Country/territory distribution
Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA)
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Golden Bowerbird Prionodura newtoniana. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/golden-bowerbird-prionodura-newtoniana on 22/11/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 22/11/2024.
