Further discoveries extend the range of Capricorn Yellow Chat in coastal Central Queensland

Extensive surveys of marine plain wetlands of western Broad Sound and the Fitzroy River Delta, Central Queensland between 2005 and 2008 identified several new sites and extended the documented range of the recently re-discovered Capricorn subspecies of Yellow Chat, Epthianuracrocea macgregori. All newly discovered sites comprise only small portions (less than 300 ha) of much more extensive marine plains. They included: two breeding sub-populations and an incidental occurrence of the Capricorn Yellow Chat in western Broad Sound immediately west of its known range; two sites (one confirmed breeding sub-population) in the southern Delta near to previously documented sites; and the re-discovery of the chat in the far north of the Fitzroy Delta, where it was collected over 120 years ago in 1882 but not reported since. Each of these six sites supported between one and 28 chats, mainly in Schoenoplectus litoralis tall sedgeland and samphire (predominantly Halosarcia pergranulata) but also rank grasses on constructed banks ofsaltfield pond margins, and sometimes in barer habitat. In most cases these wetland habitats had been hydrologically modified by banks or walls designed to prevent tidal incursion and increase freshwater retention and persistence for cattle pasture enhancement. Despite the increase in known sites of occurrence, the population of this critically endangered subspecies is estimated at less than 400, the majority within one main area, Torilla Plain, with only small numbers (5 to 30) in the remaining sites.