Records suggest large flocks of Gouldian finch including many hundreds, possibly thousands of individual birds, were common across northern Australia’s savanna grasslands in the late 1800s, before pastoralism and collecting of the species began having an impact. Just more than a century later this exquisite little species – arguably the world’s most beautiful bird – was en route to disappearing forever from the wild.

The capturing and exporting of Gouldians began in earnest from 1897, when finch trapping began in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The Gouldian finch was the most in-demand of almost a dozen native northern Australian finch species and thousands were trapped annually and sent offshore to the aviaries of bird collectors worldwide. The trade peaked in 1958, when more than 38,000 finches were trapped mostly for export, including 11,000 Gouldians.

The practice was stamped out in the early 1980s, but figures from the last legal trapping season reveal the impact it had on the Gouldian population. In WA’s 1981 finch-trapping season, records show 23,450 finches were taken, of which just 1054 were Gouldians. Trapping these birds has been illegal since then and Gouldians now breed so well in captivity there’s little demand these days for wild-trapped birds. In fact, you’d think you could gather together the world’s thousands of caged specimens, release them in northern Australia and the species’ decline would be resolved. But these finches lose their innate response to avoid predators after a few generations behind bars. Captive birds released in the wild are rapidly picked off by goshawks, kites, crows and other winged predators.

It wasn’t only trapping that brought the species close to the brink, with widespread reports of local extinctions notably in Queensland. The Gouldian was just one of several native grass–seed eating bird and mammal species disappearing from the country’s tropical savannas due to habitat change caused by cattle grazing and altered fire regimes.

In recent decades, however, there have been vast improvements in land management across Australia’s tropical grasslands. This, combined with the ban on trapping, are thought to have led to Gouldian numbers bouncing back. It doesn’t mean; however, the species is secure. 

AWC protects one of the largest remaining populations of the Gouldian Finch at Mornington-Marion Downs, as well as smaller populations at Charnley River, Wongalara, Pungalina and possibly Brooklyn. AWC’s field ecologists are undertaking vitally important research which has helped identify what needs to be done to reverse the decline in Gouldian Finches. AWC delivers effective conservation for the Gouldian Finch by implementing effective fire management through prescribed burning and by removing feral herbivores.

Support the AWC in their efforts to save this beautiful endangered species by donating to the cause today.

Click here to read the full story on the Australian Geographic website.