Plains wanderer conservation

Key information

This project aims to improve plains-wanderer habitat conditions across the Murray and Riverina LLS regions through:

• grazing management initiatives
• targeted pest and weed control. 

Project background

Estimates show that there are only around 300 plains-wanderers remaining in NSW and less than 1,000 in Australia.

Plains-wanderers need specific habitat conditions. Open grassland structures allow birds to move about, feed, and detect and evade predators like foxes and feral cats. They disappear from habitat that becomes too sparse or too dense.

The native grasslands of the NSW Riverine Plain, including areas near Urana, Wanganella, Hay, and Narrandera, are home to most plains-wanderers. The Victorian Northern Plains are also important habitats. Other scattered areas in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia provide some habitat, but it is less suitable.

Plains-wanderer facts

• Scientific name: Pedionomus torquatus. 
• Threat level: critically endangered. 
• Preferred habitat: semi-arid, lowland native grasslands.  
• Features: small, quail-like bird with a yellow bill and legs. They have fawn-coloured feathers with black rosettes. The female is slightly larger and has a black and white collar above a red breast patch. 
• Known locations: plains-wanderers occur at scattered sites across New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia. 

Key threats to the plains-wanderer include habitat modification and loss through: 

• grazing and predation by feral species 
• invasive weeds.

This project builds on more than 5 years of previous success to conserve the plains-wanderer. 

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Video transcript

Plains-wanderers

I personally think this bird is very, very special because the girl is actually the one she goes out and lays her eggs and the male then sits on the eggs and has to has to look after the young while she goes out and and finds another boyfriend off somewhere else.

In evolutionary terms and genetically speaking, this bird is very, very special because it's the only species left of its family and it's been ranked first in Australia and fourth in the world of species that we should conserve because they're quite funny birds; they like to be able to run around through the grass to forage and to breed and things. 

A lot of the land holders in the area so, so passionate about what they do and passionate about saving this bird. 

Basically what a grazier wants on their land is basically what a Plains-wanderer wants so it's not working against each other it's working together. 

Our project area for this Plains-wanderer project the area ranges from up near Goolgowi down to Billabong creek around Jerilderie, across from the Cobb highway in Hay and all the way across to Urana. So, quite a big area that we're focusing on to conserve the habitat.

On paper, we want to have conserved 10,000 hectares of Plains-wanderer habitat over about a hundred paddocks so that idea or that number is so that there's enough habitat
in good times and bad times to have enough birds in the area breeding and keeping a good healthy population.

Project objectives 

This collaborative project across the Murray and Riverina LLS regions aims to stabilise and improve plains-wanderer habitat conditions. It will do this through:

• grazing management initiatives
• targeted pest and weed control.

These activities will support the release of captive-bred plains-wanderer chicks into the project area.  

The project will also benefit other NSW priority species. This includes:

• the black falcon
• threatened ecological communities (TECs) e.g. the Weeping Myall and Sandhill Pine communities.

It will also support the rangelands in adapting to the changing climate. 

Project delivery

Work includes:

• supporting landholders to improve grassland grazing management practices and monitor the condition of grassland habitat
• monthly ongoing pest animal control at the landscape scale
• targeted boxthorn control within, and immediately surrounding, areas of primary plains-wanderer habitat
• building community support for plains-wanderer conservation
• enabling captive-bred chicks to be released onto actively managed habitat areas on private property. 

Project timeline

2024–28:

• continue landscape-scale fox and cat control
• boxthorn control across priority sites
• on-farm plains-wanderer habitat monitoring and grazing management activities at priority sites
• community knowledge and capacity building events
• project close (30 Jun 2028) and outcomes reporting.

Work underway

Pest plant and animal control is currently underway across priority sites within the project area.

How to get involved

Maintaining grassland structure for the plains-wanderer is the most important thing land managers can do. This is key for land managers to support the recovery of local populations.

Find out how to manage grassland habitat for plains-wanderers on your property. Read the Plains-wanderer Habitat Management Guide to learn more. 

What a grazier wants on their land is what a plains-wanderer wants so it’s not working against each other, it’s working together.

Project Officer, Local Land Services

Funding and partnerships

Key delivery partners working alongside Local Land Services are:

• private landholders
• threatened species experts from the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

Our work aligns with plains-wanderer recovery works undertaken by the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust, North Central Catchment Management Authority, Murray Landcare Collective and Murrumbidgee Landcare Inc. 

This project is jointly funded by the Australian Government Natural Heritage Trust and the NSW Government’s Saving Our Species program, and delivered by Local Land Services, a member of the Commonwealth Regional Delivery Partners panel.