In response to the fires, BirdLife Australia is calling us all to help - and King Island is an impor

Millions of birds will have died and are still dying as a result of the catastrophic bush fires across Australia this season. Some species may even be extinct already.

Those who have survived will be struggling to find food and shelter with many moving elsewhere looking for it.

It is going to be hard to identify just what the situation is for many of our unique bird species and to know how best we can help them survive into the future.

BirdLife Australia is at the leading edge of this work, and they are calling for our help.

King Island may seem a long way away from the fire ravaged mainland, but it is also an important stopping point for many birds and, being cooler, may well be visited or even colonised by mainland species we seldom see here.

Their Birds in Backyards program is asking people to watch and monitor the birds in their gardens and let BirdLife know through the Birds in Backyard surveys - see this letter from Holly Parsons, Manager of Birds in Backyards.

The BirdLife Atlas of Australian birds is also calling us all to help monitor bird movements.. See this letter from James O'Conner, Head of Research at BirdLife.

We really can ALL help with this. There are details in both of these letters about how to do this. Holly will be running a free webinar - see her letter - next week to discuss more details or answer questions.

You don't necessarily need to be expert bird watchers, but just keen your eyes and ears open for birds you haven't seen or heard before. If you are unsure of what you are seeing, Birds in Backyards website has an identification tool that may help, or you are welcome to give me a call 0417487263.