Author Identifier (ORCID)
Allan Burbidge: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2136-3973
Robert Davis: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9062-5754
Abstract
Aim: Holistic measurement of the response of fauna communities to interventions requires suitable community condition metrics. However, the development of such metrics is hindered by the absence of broad-scale typologies at suitable spatial and ecological resolutions. We aimed to derive a preliminary typology of terrestrial bird communities for Australia, based on bird co-occurrence data, and describe and map the likely distribution of each community type across the continent. Location: Mainland Australia, continental islands. Time Period: 1973–2022. Major Taxa Studied: Aves. Methods: We used fine-scale co-occurrence data from standard 2-ha surveys in BirdLife Australia's citizen-science database. After filtering to reduce bias, we used hierarchical clustering followed by iterative consultation with experts to identify reliably distinct and recognisable terrestrial bird communities across Australia. We used Maxent to model the likely distributions of each community and developed community descriptions based on each community's composition and distribution. Results: The resultant typology included 29 reliably distinct and recognisable bird communities with major clusters corresponding with seven broad geographical regions. The distributions of bird communities did not correspond tightly to the boundaries of major vegetation groups, with most communities occurring across multiple vegetation types. Main Conclusions: Our preliminary typology of bird communities provides a standard classification at a continental scale. It newly defines distinct bird communities as entities for which condition benchmarks can be established to allow assessment of their conservation status and monitoring of change over time. Refinement will enable cryptic communities in areas with sparse data to be identified. The method could be translated to other regions where adequate coverage of data in the form of standardised surveys of fauna is available. Vast biodiversity datasets delivered through citizen science programs provide the opportunity to develop such typologies for fauna communities, as a precursor to developing targeted and informative community condition metrics.
Keywords
Agglomerative clustering, citizen science, community typology, condition metrics, fauna community, Maxent
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
2-1-2026
Volume
32
Issue
2
Publication Title
Diversity and Distributions
Publisher
Wiley
School
School of Science
Funders
Australian Research Council
Grant Number
ARC Number : LP230100179
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Comments
Maron, M., Indraswari, K., Mills‐Anderson, J., Melton, C. B., Possingham, H., Radford, J., Reside, A. E., Bennett, A., Burbidge, A., Clarke, M., Clarke, R. H., Davis, R., Eyre, T., Freeman, A., Gibson, M., Hansen, B., Humphrey, J., Jackett, N., Palmer, B., . . . Fraser, H. (2026). A typology of Australian terrestrial bird communities. Diversity and Distributions, 32(2). https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.70143