(AU) Rising Sea Levels Threaten Critically Endangered Capricorn Yellow Chat

ABC Capricornia | Inga Stünzner

There are only 250 Capricorn yellow chats located in three habitats along the central Queensland coast.(Supplied: Bob Black)

Key points There are only 250 Capricorn yellow chats found on three marine plain habitats The Curtis Island chat population has grown to about 40 Researchers have measured a sea level rise of 80mm in 16 years and this is threatening the birds' habitat

The critically endangered Capricorn yellow chat could lose its habitat on Curtis Island within 20 years if sea levels continue to rise at current rates, researchers say.

The birds were reduced to just a couple of pairs 20 years ago, but numbers have rebounded to almost 40 on Curtis Island.

The increase has been attributed to an annual feral pig shooting program instigated in 2006 and the removal of cattle four years ago when the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service bought back a grazing lease.

But CQUniversity researcher Bob Black, who has been surveying the chat for 18 years, said the population increase may be short-lived.

"The future doesn't look terribly rosy because, within 20 years from now, they won't have enough good habitat to feed and breed," Mr Black said.

The chat is only found on three flat marine plains on the central Queensland coast, and since 2002 the sea level has risen 80 millimetres.

"Where they live is so close to sea level and they only live on treeless marine plains," Mr Black said.

"They basically have nowhere else to go as the rising sea tides push up the channel."

Nesting habitat on Curtis Island pictured in 2002 with substantial grass. (Supplied: Wayne Houston)

Although much of the plain on Curtis Island is still above sea level, the tides are higher and leave ponds that eventually dry out and create salt deposits.

Mr Black said when the ponds dried out, the salt deposits killed the vegetation.

There were four chat breeding sites with sedges when Mr Black and his team began their survey, but the sedges have disappeared from two of the sites.

"Eventually the chats will be pushed to the end of the plain and the habitat will no longer suit them," Mr Black said.

Curtis Island in 2019 shows the loss of grass after tidal intrusion. (Supplied: Bob Black)

Mr Black also said the chats had moved almost two kilometres from their original habitat in the past 20 years.

"Once they the get near the trees, they are a brilliant bright golden bird, and birds of prey like sparrow hawks will just increase their predation of them," Mr Black said.

"They basically can't survive in habitats with trees."

The CQUniversity research team had a paper published this year in the Austral Ecology journal that stated continued sea level rises would also have ramifications for other shore birds.

"Capricorn yellow chats, by virtue of their narrow niche and dependence on marine plain wetlands, could be used as a sentinel species for early warning of sea level rises," the paper said.

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