Data from: Superb Lyrebird nesting habitat and the 2019 megafires in Australia

An animal’s habitat offers food and protection necessary for survival and
reproduction and consequently impacts individual fitness. In birds,
understanding nest site selection is critical to understanding a species’
ecology and developing effective conservation management actions. The
Superb Lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae) is one of many endemic species
extensively impacted by Australia’s unprecedented 2019-20 megafires. Over
a period of 5 months, an estimated 43% of the entire range of this
slow-breeding species was burnt, with the biggest impact on the central
subspecies M. n. novaehollandiae (55%). 4 months prior to these megafires,
we conducted a field study of nest site habitat selection in the Superb
Lyrebird within the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area (15,400
km2): a key stronghold of the central subspecies of the Superb Lyrebird.
We found that at the local scale, lyrebird nest sites were more likely to
be found in habitats characterized by dense canopy trees and rich in
rainforest elements such as vines and treeferns. At the landscape scale,
lyrebird nests were most likely to be constructed in rainforest; this
fire-sensitive habitat type made up only 1% of the Greater Blue Mountains
World Heritage Area. The probability of nest occurrence also increased
with slope. We also found that more than 74% of all nesting habitat within
the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area burned in the 2019-20
megafires, including 80% of areas of high suitability for nesting. These
results suggest that the impact of these megafires on Superb Lyrebirds may
be greater than currently thought. Given the importance of rainforest as
nesting habitat for the superb lyrebird, managers should prioritize its
restoration and protect it from future fire events. More broadly, our
results illustrate how large-scale catastrophic events – such as megafires
– can disproportionately affect habitats critical to specific points
within an organism’s life cycle.