Status of the White-throated Needletail Hirundapus caudacutus in Australia: Evidence for a marked decline

Abstract

There is some divergence of opinion as to whether White-throated Needletails Hirundapus caudacutus are declining at the local level. However, when trends at Victorian sites were analysed, significant declines in populations between the 1960s and 2011–2012 were found. When larger samples were examined at the state level and for the whole of Australia in each of the decades since 1950, significant declines were also detected. The causes of this decline may lie both locally and overseas, and reasons for decline are explored. The largest single cause appears to be the accelerated destruction of the Siberian forests, where a large proportion of the Australian population of Needletails needs old trees with hollows in which to breed. There is an urgent need for further research into the population and conservation status of this species.