The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development’s (DPIRD) annual European starling surveillance program has kicked off along the South Coast with landholders and the community asked to be on alert and report any unusual bird sightings.
European starlings are a declared pest in Western Australia (WA) with an ongoing control program operating between Hopetoun and Eucla to prevent starlings from establishing in State.
The trapping network is currently being bolstered with the addition of five new portable acoustic towers.
These acoustic towers expand DPIRD’s surveillance footprint, particularly in remote areas. The devices are constantly listening for starlings and will remotely send potential detections to field officers for follow up.
DPIRD Regional Biosecurity Coordinator Richard Watkins said the annual starling trapping, surveillance and eradication activities ran from October to March each year as part of ongoing efforts to ensure the pest bird doesn’t establish populations in Western Australia.
“Starlings are an agricultural pest which consume and spoil livestock feed and wool, as well as severely impacting horticulture crops,” Mr Watkins said.
“The birds can also damage property, industry and infrastructure with their roost and nest sites and can cause considerable nuisance generating high levels of noise by large roosting flocks.
“Adding in the new acoustic towers to our program this year will provide another layer of surveillance to help detect starlings before they can breed and establish a population in WA.
“The field devices constantly capture and process acoustic information through an on-board, starling-specific, machine learning algorithm.
“The devices then remotely communicate any plausible starling detections for verification, in close to ‘real-time’, which are then able to be followed up by the surveillance team on the ground.”
Mr Watkins said working in partnership with landholders, volunteers and the community was a vital part of the annual program.
“Starlings are very social birds, frequently living alongside people and may be seen perching and preening in prominent places, such as powerlines, building roofs, and aerials.
“They are also often seen around grain storage and feedlots and perching on the back of livestock.
“The remote nature of the surveillance areas means the more eyes we can have looking out for, and reporting, unusual activity such as birds on the back of livestock or groups of black birds flying in tight groups, the better.”
Starlings are small, plump birds with glossy black feathers have an iridescent green and purple sheen and a blackish-coloured beak turns yellow in spring when they are mating.
More information on European starlings is available by visiting dpird.wa.gov.au/starling.
Any sightings of unusual birds in Western Australia should be reported to Pest and Disease Information Service on 9368 3080 or padis@dpird.wa.gov.au or via the MyPestGuide Reporter app.