‘Increasingly worried’: more than a quarter of a million waterbirds disappear from eastern Australia

Pelicans in the Mullawoolka basin of NSW. The eastern Australian aerial waterbird survey, one of the longest running bird counts in the world, is in its 42nd year. Photograph: Richard Kingsford/UNSW

Drier conditions have led to waterbird numbers in eastern Australia plummeting by 50% compared with 2023, one of the country’s largest wildlife surveys has found.

Conducted annually since 1983, the eastern Australian waterbird aerial survey is one of the world’s longest continuous bird counts as well as one of the largest by geographical distance covered.