How little brown birds get overlooked in the protection pecking order

Ever heard of the King Island brown thornbill? What about the orange-bellied parrot? Can you guess which is more endangered? In January 2016, a keen birdwatcher named Dion Hobcroft walked into the Pegarah state forest on Tasmania's King Island with a recorded birdcall and took the first blurry photographs of the King Island brown thornbill.The brown thornbill, Acanthiza pusilla archibaldi, is a subspecies of the Tasmanian thornbill, distinguished from its cousins on the big island by a slightly longer beak. Continue reading...