Ever since the rare and endangered Gouldian finch was the centrepiece of a primary school assignment, Kacie Austin has been chasing what she thought would be a once-in-a-lifetime glimpse.
She's a twitcher by definition.
"I had seen Gouldians once in the wild and it took a whole lot of effort," she said.
All but one of her long-distance drives to spy the small, colourful birds in their usual habitat, high in the trees on the fringes of Katherine, 300 kilometres south of Darwin, were in vain.
But in an unusual twist of fate that has Top End birders in a flurry of excitement, hundreds of the revered finches are making an appearance in a location they haven't been seen for decades.
Ms Austin is just one of many Darwin urbanites who have been waking up before dawn, expensive cameras and binoculars in hand, and travelling the short distance to Lee Point, where seeing flocks of the Gouldian finch is almost a guarantee.
"I've been most days over the last couple of weeks out to see them," she said.
"It's really exciting to be able to just wake up and drive 20 minutes to where there are dozens and dozens of them hanging out right by my doorstep."
What's behind the big numbers and the big move?
A few decades ago people started to notice Gouldian finches were disappearing rapidly, mainly due to threats to their natural habitat and changes in fire patterns.
They became so rare avid birdwatchers from across the globe would visit the region to see them and often leave disappointed.
But they've recently made a strong comeback, said BirdLife Australia's Top End convener Robin Leppitt.
"Their numbers have really built back up in their usual range and are being seen much further north in the Darwin area for two main reasons," Dr Leppitt said.
"There are now so many further south [around Katherine] that they're pushing upwards.
"Granivorous birds like finches rely on surface water to drink and don't get any water from their food. So they really need surface water."
Biodiversity disappearing
Graeme Sawyer from Biodiversity Watch said the population rebound could even see the Gouldian finch taken off the endangered species list.
"I've personally seen them as far south as Borroloola … and now they're spreading out into new areas where they haven't been seen for years, which is a good sign of the population recovering," Mr Sawyer said.
A national recovery plan for the Gouldian finch was established in 2006, but Mr Sawyer said the boom was most likely due to its primary predator, the goanna, being thinned out by cane toads.
"That's led to an increase in nesting success," Mr Sawyer said.
Renewed calls to save Lee Point habitat
Mr Sawyer said the finch's "high profile" descent on Lee Point, a northern suburb of the city of Darwin, has brought more attention to an effort to save one of the last vestiges of natural bushland from urban sprawl.
Plans to build 800 defence houses at Lee Point – a coastal reserve home to a range of endangered animals and protected bird species – have drawn the ire of residents and environmentalists for the past year.
"[The finches] have really attracted a lot of attention to this fact that we now have a situation where the very habitat that's holding them around Darwin is under threat from development and is likely to be cleared," Mr Sawyer said.
The Northern Territory government's Environment Department has been contacted to see if and when the Gouldian finch will be declared unthreatened.
