More than 170,000 water birds are taking advantage of the best conditions in 10 years to breed in iconic wetlands across the Murray Darling Basin, including an estimated 35,000 water birds in the internationally significant Macquarie Marshes.
Minister for Climate Change and the Environment, Frank Sartor said the biggest water bird breeding events in years are being carefully monitored by a team of experts.
“This year’s rain and river inflows created ideal conditions for us to deliver environmental water flows to key wetlands optimising breeding conditions for water birds, fish and frogs,” Mr Sartor said.
“Straw-necked Ibis make up the majority of water bird breeding pairs in the wetlands but we also have Royal Spoonbills, Cormorants, Crested Grebes, Magpie Geese, Australasian Bitterns, Great Egrets and Glossy Ibis.”
Glossy Ibis and Great Egrets are protected by international migratory water bird agreements with Japan (JAMBA) and China (CAMBA).
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