The listing of more Australian bird species as ‘threatened’ is alarming – but also cause for hope

Even such a stunning bird as the pink cockatoo is now listed as endangered, as its habitat of tree hollows is destroyed by land clearing. Photograph: Auscape/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

You wouldn’t think there would be much to celebrate when a threatened species has its status uplisted because the risk of it becoming extinct has increased. To have nine Australian birds uplisted on a single day as happened last week may at first seem very bleak indeed.

These listings have not come out of the blue, sparked by a single catastrophic event. The nine uplistings follow the recommendations of the 2020 Action Plan for Australian Birds produced by BirdLife Australia and Charles Darwin University, drawing on the expertise of hundreds of researchers who have studied and catalogued both the threats facing Australia’s birds and the actions needed to recover those teetering on the edge of extinction.