Islands of green in the black: the value of patches of unburnt vegetation within a large fireground for woodland birds

Understanding how fires affect bird communities is becoming increasingly important as the risk of extreme fire events increases with anthropogenic climate change. Regular monitoring at two unburnt patches and five burnt matrix sites deep within a large high-intensity fireground in northern inland New South Wales, Australia, identified a total of 86 woodland bird species over the first 3 years post-fire. Species richness in unburnt patches was consistently higher than at burnt matrix sites over the duration of the study, but most markedly in the initial post-fire period. Fourteen species including the White-throated Treecreeper Cormobates leucophaea, Speckled Warbler Pyrrholaemus sagittatus and Eastern Yellow Robin Eopsaltria australis favoured unburnt patches and one, the Red-capped Robin Petroica goodenovii, favoured the burnt matrix. At the level of functional groups, small and medium-sized insectivores and declining woodland birds favoured unburnt patches. The results of this study suggest that unburnt patches in firegrounds can play an important role in assisting reestablishment of fire-sensitive woodland bird populations in burnt areas through in situ recolonisation, complementing ex situ recolonisation from outside the fireground.