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

Taxonomic note

Chloebia gouldiae (del Hoyo and Collar 2016) was previously placed in the genus Erythrura following Christidis & Boles (2008); Sibley & Monroe (1990, 1993).

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.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2022	Least Concern
2016	Near Threatened	D1
2013	Near Threatened	D1
2012	Near Threatened	D1
2008	Endangered	C2a(ii)
2006	Endangered
2004	Endangered
2000	Endangered
1996	Endangered
1994	Endangered
1988	Threatened

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

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	1,780,000 km2	medium
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	5000-50000, 25000 mature individuals	poor	estimated	2020
Population trend	stable	poor	estimated	-
Generation length	2.64 years	-	-	-
Number of subpopulations	1-2	-	-	-
Percentage of mature individuals in largest subpopulation	100%	-	-	-

Population justification: The population size of Gouldian Finches has been estimated using a number of methods: Legge et al. (2021) based their estimate on the product of three suspected AOO values: the minimum AOO is based on the number of 2x2 km squares encompassing all records since 1990, the best estimate is ten times this, and the maximum double the latter. These AOO values are applied to a density estimated for Mornington Wildlife Sanctuary, Western Australia (500–1,000 adult birds in 200 km²; Legge et al. 2021). Although using genetic techniques, the effective population size (Ne) was estimated to be 1,600 (611–20,000) in 2016 (Bolton et al. 2016), the ratio of Ne to the actual number of mature individuals can vary by two orders of magnitude (Palstra and Fraser 2012) and tends to decline as populations increase (Waples et al. 2018). On eBird (2021) the sum of the maximum number of birds in any count at 113 sites (each ≥10 km apart) reported during 2018–2019 was 3,915 mature individuals. Such counts are prone to some inflation from recounting the same individuals as they come and go from the field of view and >80% of birds in flocks are usually juveniles (Woinarski and Tidemann 1992, Franklin et al. 1998), so the number of mature individuals is much smaller than the numbers counted in flocks. Given these uncertainties, the estimate used here is set at 5,000-50,000 mature individuals, with a best estimate of 25,000.

Trend justification: Consistent with analyses undertaken in 2015 (TSSC 2016), there was zero trend in reporting rate from 2000–2019 for both 2-ha 20-min surveys and 500-m radius area surveys (BirdLife Australia 2020). Count data from standardised waterhole counts conducted at sites in the Northern Territory (1996–2004; O'Malley 2006) also showed no decline, while the known AOO expanded by 36% between 1999-2009 and 2010-2020, although there remains uncertainty whether this constitutes an expansion in range of survey effort.

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Australia	extant	native	yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name
Australia	Keep River
Australia	Mornington Sanctuary
Australia	Wyndham
Australia	Yinberrie Hills

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Grassland	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	major	resident
Savanna	Dry	suitable	resident
Shrubland	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	suitable	resident
Altitude	0 - 370 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Agriculture & aquaculture	Livestock farming & ranching - Agro-industry grazing, ranching or farming	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Majority (50-90%)		Negligible declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation, Ecosystem conversion
Biological resource use	Hunting & trapping terrestrial animals - Intentional use (species is the target)	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Past, Unlikely to Return		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Past Impact
		Stresses Species mortality
Climate change & severe weather	Habitat shifting & alteration	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Future		Whole (>90%)		Unknown		Unknown
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation
Climate change & severe weather	Other impacts	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Future		Majority (50-90%)		Unknown		Unknown
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation
Energy production & mining	Mining & quarrying	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Negligible declines		Low Impact: 4
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation
Invasive and other problematic species, genes & diseases	Invasive non-native/alien species/diseases - Bos taurus	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Majority (50-90%)		Negligible declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation
Invasive and other problematic species, genes & diseases	Invasive non-native/alien species/diseases - Equus caballus	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Unknown		Negligible declines		Unknown
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation
Invasive and other problematic species, genes & diseases	Invasive non-native/alien species/diseases - Sus scrofa	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Unknown		Negligible declines		Unknown
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation
Invasive and other problematic species, genes & diseases	Problematic native species/diseases - Unspecified species	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Past, Unlikely to Return		Unknown		Slow, Significant Declines		Past Impact
		Stresses Species mortality
Natural system modifications	Fire & fire suppression - Trend Unknown/Unrecorded	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Majority (50-90%)		Causing/Could cause fluctuations		Medium Impact: 6
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation

Purpose	Scale
Pets/display animals, horticulture	international

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Gouldian Finch Chloebia gouldiae. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/gouldian-finch-chloebia-gouldiae on 23/11/2024.
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 23/11/2024.