Factors Affecting Flora Conservation - Victorian Environmental ...

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large trees required for nesting and roosting,
and the density and diversity of some
potential prey species may be lower. The
old-growth forests of the Board of Workscontrolled
catchments are very important for
die conservation ofthe owl, which has rarely
been recorded within conservation reserves in
the study area.
Pink robin (Petroica radinogaster)
This small songbird feeds on insects and
other invertebrates taken from the ground, in
die air, and from foliage. It is resfricted to
south-eastern Australia, where it occurs
predominanfly in central and eastern Victoria
and in Tasmania. In summer, pink robins
live and breed in upland cool temperate
rainforest and occasionally in wet eucalypt
forest (Loyn 1985). In autumn, many birds
move into drier and lower-elevation forests,
and coastal scmb. The extensive moist
forests in the Central Highlands are important
breeding areas and hence vital for the
species' conservation.
Grey-crowned babbler (Pomatostomus
temporalis)
recommended in an attempt to rescue this
population; these include encouraging landowners
to retain native vegetation, replanting
roadside vegetation, and controlling feral
predators around known colonies.
Regent honeyeater (Xanthomyza phrygia)
The nomad regent honeyeater follows the
flowering of eucalypts in small groups of up
to 20 birds. It is restricted to south-eastern
Australia, now being found mainly in a few
sites in north-eastern Victoria and centraleastern
New South Wales (Franklin et al.
1989). Regent honeyeaters were once
widespread here, mainly in box-ironbark
forests (Webster and Menkhorst 1990);
however, their range has contracted markedly
this century, and they are considered to be in
danger of extinction, with possibly fewer
than 1000 individuals remaining (Brouwer
and Garnett 1990). The decline appears to be
associated with clearance of their preferred
habitat for agriculture, mral tree decline, and
removal of mature trees during timberharvesting.
The grey-crowned babbler I ives in small
groups of related individuals, and feeds on
invertebrates and small vertebrates in the
ground litter layer. Il nests and roosts in
large-domed nests or dormitories, which are
a conspicuous feature of a territory. It now
inhabits dry forest and woodland remnants,
generally on floodplains (Emison et al.
1987), (see Figure 6).
The grey-crowned babbler is considered
vulnerable in Victoria because its range has
contracted significantly. Although once
common and widespread in south-eastern
Australia, its range now appears to be slowly
contracting northwards and die last
population soudi of the Great Dividing
Range, on the Mornington Peninsula, is now
direatened with extinction. Since I960, at
least nine of the 19 known colonies on die
Peninsula have become extinct (Schulz in
press). Most of the rest have undergone
population reductions, and now occupy
remnant vegetation on roadsides and golfcourses:
none are within conservation
reserves. Fragmentation and modification of
remaining habitat, and predation by foxes and
cats, appear to be the main causes of their
decline. A number of steps have been
Regent honeyeater
In die study area regent honeyeaters are only
known to occur regularly in the Plenty
Gorge, where they visit flowering red
ironbark in winter. Until recenfly they have
been regular visitors to outer north-eastern
suburbs Gil^^e Eldiam and Christmas Hills),
Fraser National Park, and around Eildon, and