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 |
Australia
|
Average mass |
- |
Population justification:
In 1979–1983, A. r. rufescens occupied about 730 territories (Ferrier 1984) or 1460 mature individuals, and A. r. ferrieri occupied about 1,720 territories or 3,440 mature individuals. Based on the impacts of drought and fire, the population of A. r. rufescens is estimated to have declined by 64% (49%–67%) in the last decade with declines greatest at Main Range (est. 2020 population: 2 birds; loss 86%) and Gibraltar Range (170, 82%); losses at Lamington (220, 30%) and in the Border Ranges (140, 29%) almost entirely a consequence of drought, so may be cyclic. The population of A. r. ferrieri is estimated to have declined by 56% (43%–60%) with losses greatest at Hasting Range (est. 2020 population 460, loss 74%), lower at Ebor/Dorrigo (550, 18%) and least at Barrington Tops (510, 2%). As a result, the best estimate is now 2,050 individuals for the species (Stewart et al. 2021, Stuart et al. 2021).
Trend justification: The population of the species is probably less than half what it was a decade ago as a result of drought and fire. In 1979–1983, A. r. rufescens occupied about 730 territories (Ferrier 1984) or 1460 mature individuals, which was thought not to have changed by 2010 based on observations of Ekert (2005) and Hill (2010). Based on annual monitoring of the A. r. ferrieri at Barrington Tops area (Stuart 2020), which is consistent with observations in the Border Ranges (Hill 2010; 2018) and Lamington National Park (Stewart 2018), populations are assumed to have been 29% lower than Ferrier (1984) in 2019 because of drought. Fire in 2019 reduced this further; based on its severity in the areas occupied by the scrub-birds and estimates of mortality at different severity classes (severity class 2: 20%; class 3: 50%; class 4: 100%; class 5: 100%), about 49% of the population probably died in the fire, with estimates ranging from 28% to 54% depending on the fire-related mortality assumed under different scenarios. Including population reductions resulting from drought, the population is estimated to have declined by 64% (49%–67%) in the last decade with declines greatest at Main Range (est. 2020 population: 2 birds; loss 86%) and Gibraltar Range (170, 82%); losses at Lamington (220, 30%) and in the Border Ranges (140, 29%) almost entirely a consequence of drought, so may be cyclic. In burnt areas, the lower quality of damaged habitat may mean losses are continuing among survivors. In 1979–1983 A. r. ferrieri occupied about 1720 territories (Ferrier 1984) or 3440 mature individuals. On the basis of the area above 600 m, this would have been about 1790 at Hastings Range, 910 at Ebor/Dorrigo and 740 Barrington Tops. Since then, reasonable numbers occurred at Werrikimbie and Carrai National Parks with smaller numbers at other sites in 1999–2004 (Ekert 2005), and densities above 1100 m on Barrington and Gloucester Tops in September 2010 were about 6 pairs/km2 (Newman and Stuart 2011), suggesting little change at that time (Garnett et al. 2011). Subsequent annual monitoring at Barrington Tops suggested that densities were exceptionally high following wet conditions in 2010 and 2011, relatively stable 2012–2016 with densities similar to those estimated by Ferrier (1984), then fell from 3.7 pairs/km2 to 2.6 pairs/km2 from 2017–2019 as a result of drought (Stuart 2020). As dry conditions were pervasive across the subspecies range, the population in 2019 is assumed to have been 29% lower than Ferrier (1984) at about 2400. Fire in 2019 reduced this further; based on its severity in the area occupied by the scrub-birds and estimates of mortality at different severity classes (severity class 2: 20%; class 3: 50%; class 4: 100%; class 5: 100%), about 37% of the population died in the fire, with estimates ranging from 20% to 44% depending on the fire-related mortality assumed under different scenarios. Including population reductions resulting from drought, the population is estimated to have declined by 56% (43%–60%) with losses greatest at Hasting Range (est. 2020 population 460, loss 74%), lower at Ebor/Dorrigo (550, 18%) and least at Barrington Tops (510, 2%). The lower quality of damaged habitat may mean losses continued among survivors.
Country/territory distribution
Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA)
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Rufous Scrub-bird Atrichornis rufescens. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/rufous-scrub-bird-atrichornis-rufescens on 23/12/2024.
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 23/12/2024.
