Birds of the Reef Hills State Forest in North-eastern Victoria.  R. H. Loyn.  April 1983.  22 pp. (unpubl.)

SUMMARY

Birds in the Reef Hills State Forest were observed in 1979 and 1980, and the abundance of different species in various habitats was estimated by recording numbers of birds on sample transects.

The forest contained an assemblage of species characteristic of dry open forest on the northern slopes of the Great Dividing Range. The commonest was the fuscous honeyeater (Lichenostomus fuscus †) and nectivorous birds were abundant, often drinking at small fire-dams, which afforded excellent opportunities for observation. The forest also supported some birds typical of denser forests in the Divide, and others typical of open forest of river red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehnh.). The main division in bird communities was between stands of box-stringybark and stands of river red gum. Some species that inhabit the shrub layer occurred in suitable thickets in all forest types, and these thickets were an important habitat component at Reef Hills. Birds that nest in large hollows in trees were scarce, reflecting a general shortage of suitable nest-sites. The golf-course on the north-west corner was a distinctive and valuable habitat and forest on its boundary may have special importance for some bird species, including two regarded as significant by the Land Conservation Council (LCC) (bush thick-knee (Burhinus magnirostris) and turquoise parrot (Neophema pulchella).

The ten birds listed as significant by the LCC include six that probably occur only as vagrants or outside the forest, in which case they require no special management considerations. The others can all be conserved  by general measures, which include retention of selected trees with large hollows, and continuing the present practices that encourage formation of scattered shrub thickets within an open grassy forest.

† Nomenclature follows RAOU (1978), and authors of scientific names for birds are given in Macdonald (1973).