Skip to main content Skip to main navigation Skip to search

Queensland and NSW floods 2022

Visit recovery.gov.au to see what help is available.

Close
Home

Top navigation main

  • News & media
  • Jobs
  • Ministers
  • Contact us
Main menu

AWE Main

  • Climate change
    Climate change Driving climate action, science and innovation so we are ready for the future.
    • Climate science and adaptation
    • Australia's climate change strategies
    • Emissions reduction
    • Emissions reporting
    • International commitments
    • Climate Active
    • Climate change publications and data
    • Australia’s National Greenhouse Accounts (Emissions Data)
    Stronger action on climate change

    Stronger action on climate change

    See how the Australian Government is committed to taking more ambitious action on climate change.

    Find out more

  • Energy
    Energy Building a secure and sustainable energy system for all Australians.
    • Energy policy in Australia
    • Energy and Climate Change Ministerial Council
    • Renewable energy
    • Energy publications
    • energy.gov.au
    • Energy Rating
    • Commercial Building Disclosure Program
    • Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS)
    • Your Home
    • Reducing transport emissions
    Photo of commercial laundry focused on a washer and dryer

    Energy Ratings labels

    Helping consumers choose energy-efficient appliances

    Helping consumers choose energy-efficient appliances

  • Environment
    Environment Improving stewardship and sustainable management of Australia’s environment.
    • Bushfire recovery
    • Climate change and the environment
    • Biodiversity
    • EPBC Act
    • Environmental information and data
    • International activities
    • Invasive species
    • Land
    • Marine
    • Partnerships
    • Protection
    • Report a breach of environment law
    • Threatened species & ecological communities
    • Waste and recycling
    • Wildlife trade
    Decorative image

    Read our Nature Positive Plan

    Our plan sets out the Australian Government’s commitment to environmental law reform

    Find out more

  • Water
    Water Improving the sustainable management of Australia’s water supply for industry, the environment and communities.
    • Coal, Coal seam gas (CSG) and water
    • Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder
    • Water policy and resources
    • Wetlands
    Water matters

    Water Matters

    Keep up with the latest news on the department's work in managing Australia's water resources.

    Read the latest edition here

  • Parks and heritage
    Parks and heritage Managing Australia’s iconic national parks, historic places and living landscapes.
    • Australian Marine Parks
    • Australian National Botanic Gardens
    • Booderee National Park
    • Kakadu National Park
    • Christmas Island National Park
    • National parks
    • Norfolk Island National Park
    • Heritage
    • Pulu Keeling National Park
    • The Great Barrier Reef
    • Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park
    The reef

    Great Barrier Reef

    Australia is protecting and conserving this World Heritage Area.

    Find out more

  • Science and research
    Science and research Undertaking research and collecting data to support informed decisions and policies.
    • Climate change
    • Australia's biological resources
    • National Environmental Science Program (NESP)
    • Office of the Science Convenor
    • Australian Biological Resource Study (ABRS)
    • State of the Environment (SoE) reporting
    • Bird and bat banding
    • Supervising Scientist
    Our climate is changing

    Our climate is changing

    Find out more about how climate science helps Australians with the impacts of climate change.

    Find out more

  • About us
    About us We lead Australia’s response to climate change and sustainable energy use, and protect our environment, heritage and water.
    • Accountability and reporting
    • Assistance, grants and tenders
    • Fees and charges
    • News and media
    • Our commitment to you
    • People and jobs
    • What we do
    • Who we are
    2023-24 May Budget

    2023-24 Budget

    The 2023-24 Budget has been delivered. Find out what's been announced.

    Find out what's been announced

  • Online services
    Online services We do business with you using online platforms. This makes it easier for you to meet your legal requirements.
Department of Climate Change, Energy, Enviroment and Water

Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. Environment
  3. Biodiversity
  4. Threatened species & ecological communities
  5. Threatened species and ecological communities publications
  6. Gouldian finch - Erythrura gouldiae

Sidebar first - EN - Biodiversity

  • Threatened species & ecological communities
    • Threatened Species Commissioner
      • Threatened Species Bake off
      • Contact us
    • The Threatened Species Action Plan 2022-2032
      • Saving Native Species
      • Priority Species
      • Development and consultation
      • Threatened Species Strategy 2015-2020
    • Threatened Species Recovery Fund
    • Threatened Species Scientific Committee
      • Committee members
    • Threatened species
      • Koalas
        • Saving Koalas Fund
        • Koala recovery projects
        • Science for koala recovery
        • National Koala Monitoring Program
        • National Koala Recovery Team
        • National environmental law
      • Monitoring Flying-Fox Populations
        • Hendra virus
        • National environmental law
        • Policy statement
    • Threatened ecological communities
      • About threatened ecological communities
      • New South Wales
      • Northern Territory
      • Queensland
      • South Australia
      • Tasmania
      • Victoria
      • Western Australia
    • Common Assessment Method
    • Nominations
      • Nomination forms and guidelines
      • Proposed priority assessment list
      • Comment on listing assessments
      • Extensions to timeframes
      • Ineligible species
      • Ineligible ecological communities
      • Ineligible key threatening processes
      • Disallowed Ecological Communities
      • Ecological Communities not prioritised for assessment
      • Key threatening processes not prioritised for assessment
      • Species not prioritised for assessment
    • Species Expert Assessment Plan
    • Listing assessments
      • Process and timeframes
      • Finalised priority assessment lists
    • Conservation advices
    • Recovery plans
      • Proposed changes to conservation planning decisions
      • Recovery plans made or adopted
      • Recovery plans open for public comment
    • Key threatening processes
    • Recovery teams
      • Monitoring and reporting
      • National register
    • Threat abatement plans
      • Approved Threat abatement plans
      • Drafts and reviews open for public comment
    • Threat abatement advices
      • Buffel grass
        • Threat abatement actions
        • Resources
      • Invasive pasture grasses
        • Annual mission grass
        • Gamba grass
        • Olive hymenachne
        • Para grass
        • Perennial mission grass
    • Listed species and ecological community permits
      • Notification of activities
      • Protected species permits
    • Threatened species and ecological communities publications

Gouldian finch - Erythrura gouldiae

2008

National Threatened Species Day Fact Sheet

Download
Gouldian finch - Erythrura gouldiae (PDF 383.9KB)

CONSERVATION STATUS

Australian Government: ENDANGERED
Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
Western Australia: ENDANGERED
Wildlife Conservation Act 1950
Northern Territory: ENDANGERED
Territory Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 2000
Queensland: ENDANGERED
Nature Conservation Act 1992

Introduction

The Gouldian finch is a medium-sized grass eating bird that lives only in the northern savannas region of Australia. It is a strikingly colourful bird which was once very common. Although Gouldian finches are popular as pets around the world, less than 2500 adult finches remain in the wild. These remaining finches are broken up into isolated flocks, most with less than 100 birds each.

Did you know?

John Gould, discoverer of the Gouldian finch, was so impressed by the bird's gorgeous plumage that he named it the Lady Gouldian finch after his late wife. This has since been shortened to the Gouldian finch.

What do they look like?

The Gouldian finch is easily recognised by its purple chest, yellow breast and green back. Their legs and feet are yellow and they have a long, pointed tail. Females are duller than males, and the juveniles are completely dull green. There are three different colour-morphs of Gouldian finches, which have either black, red, or yellow faces.

Where do they live?

In the past, the Gouldian finch was widely distributed throughout the tropical savannas of northern Australia. Now it is confined to isolated areas, mostly within the top end of the Northern Territory and the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Few are thought to remain in northern Queensland.

Gouldian finches live in savanna woodlands where they nest in the hollows of smooth-barked eucalypts. The largest known breeding population lives north of Katherine in the Northern Territory. This population utilises different habitat types at different times of the year. For much of the dry season birds remain in their breeding habitat in hilly woodland and use a variety of woodland types in nearby lowland country during the wet season.

Fire plays a big part in determining the local distribution of the Gouldian finch. In the dry season Gouldians rely upon fire to burn the undergrowth so they can find seeds on the ground.

In the wet season they like to feed in places which were not burned in the preceding dry season, as these places will have plenty of seeds for food.

Gouldian finch life history and ecology

Late in the wet season Gouldian finches seek out hollows for nesting, preferring those formed by termites in northern white gum and salmon gum to raise their four or more chicks. Both parents raise the chicks and up to three clutches of eggs can be laid in a season.

Flock size varies with seasons. During the dry season larger feeding flocks can be observed, whereas flocks are smaller and more dispersed during the wet season. Gouldian finches eat only grass seed. During the dry season they feed mainly on the seed of sorghum grass, and during the wet season they eat several species of perennial grasses.

Threats to the Gouldian finch

While the reduction in numbers of Gouldian finches was once thought to be due to capture for sale as pets, this is not the case. The greatest threats to Gouldian finches and other grass-eating birds are changes to habitat resulting from altered fire patterns and grazing pressure.

Research has shown that both fire and grazing can reduce the amount of wet season grass seed available to Gouldians. Frequent fires reduce the amount of seed produced by cockatoo grass and curly spinifex. Cockatoo grass and ribbon grass are also eaten by cattle, horses and pigs, and grazing by these animals can affect the amount of seed produced.

It is thought that a critical period for Gouldians is the onset of the wet season when spear grass seed germinates and is unavailable to birds, and the first of the wet season grasses are yet to produce seed.

The length of this 'resource bottleneck' period varies depending on the pattern of rainfall in the wet season and the dry season fire regime.

Case Study - Managing threatened north Kimberley species

The North Kimberley Biodiversity Hotspot is home to a number of significantly threatened species such as the Gouldian finch, northern quoll, golden bandicoot and red goshawk.

In 2006 a North Kimberley Threatened Species Survey was carried out by Traditional Owners from Uunguu, Balanggarra and Wilinggin native title groups along with researchers from the Department of Environment and Conservation (WA) and the Western Australian Museum. The decline of many species is of concern to the traditional owners that live in the region and the collaboration allowed them to work with researchers to share their knowledge and skills in the management of the threatened species.

The survey found small to medium mammals to be scarce but reptiles abundant in the area. There were several exciting discoveries made during the survey, including two species never before recorded, and a breeding population of Gouldian finches were observed drinking and feeding along the creek system. It is hoped collaborative surveys like this can occur in the future to continue to monitor and collect information about the species of this special region.

What you can do

  • Volunteer to become involved in waterhole monitoring of Gouldian finches.
  • Protect the habitat of all our native species, including the Gouldian finch.
  • Support local efforts to conserve threatened species in your area by joining a local conservation group.
  • Land managers can work with scientists to develop fire regimes that are good for grazing and as well as Gouldian finches.
  • Help the Gouldian finch by reporting any activities that you see that are likely to harm them or their habitat to the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts - Compliance and Enforcement Branch. Visit www.environment.gov.au/epbc/ compliance/inder.html or freecall 1800 110 395 for more information.

Contacts

TSN Coordinator:
Northern Savannas
WWF-Australia
P (08) 8941 7554
E savannas@wwf.org.au
W www.wwf.org.au/tsn

References

O'Malley, C. (2006). National Recovery Plan for the Gouldian Finch (Erythrura gouldiae). WWF - Australia, Sydney and Parks and Wildlife NT , Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts, NT Government, Palmerston. 

Thanks for your feedback.
Thanks! Your feedback has been submitted.

We aren't able to respond to your individual comments or questions.
To contact us directly phone us or submit an online inquiry

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Please verify that you are not a robot.

Skip

Footer

  • Contact us
  • Accessibility
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy
  • FOI
Last updated: 10 October 2021

© Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.