Endangered
White-throated Grasswren
Amytornis woodwardi
White-throated Grasswren is a perching bird in the family Maluridae (order Passeriformes) — Amytornis woodwardi, recorded as Endangered and tied to Australia.
Appearance
The white-throated grasswren is the largest member of the Australian grasswrens (Amytornis spp.), with a wing length of 70–80 mm. It has a similar pattern of coloration to the smaller Carpentarian grasswren (A. Dorytheae), that occurs on sandstones hundreds of kilometers to the east of the Arnhem Plateau. White-throated grasswrens have a typically dark plumage with a striking white 'bib' from below the chin to the middle of the belly.
Published measurements include mass about 36.9.
Range and habitat
The white-throated grasswren is only found on and around the Arnhem Land sandstone massif, between Katherine and Maningrida. Representing an area of 6,200 km2 (2,400 sq mi). Its natural habitats are sandstone and conglomerate escarpment of the Arnhem Plateau. Ecological niche modelling has shown that white-throated grasswrens typically occupy habitat patches that are close to unburnt habitat, have a low proportion-of-area-burnt, have low vegetation cover, and high time-since-fire, particularly when compared to the average background values across the landscape.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Habits
Perching birds hold with three toes forward and one back. A named island starling or leafbird in this catalog is a wild population, not a cage type.
In crisis
Its status is endangered on the IUCN Red List, last assessed in 2022, and in Australia under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, effective November 2014, and in the NT under the Territory Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 2000. It is threatened by habitat loss, as it depends on Triodia microstachya (spinifex grass) untouched by fire for at least five years. It is therefore threatened by more frequent bushfires (over 50 in 2021, with climate change playing a role in the increase), leading to inadequate habitat quality and lack of reproductive success.
Its total population was estimated at between 5,000 and 10,000 individuals in 1992. No more than 10,000 mature birds in 2011, with numbers continuing to decline through loss of habitat. As of 2022 it has disappeared from many of the locations where it used to be spotted frequently, such as near Gunlom Falls in Kakadu National Park, Plum Tree Creek, the large population near the East Alligator River.
White-throated Grasswren is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on White-throated Grasswren, Wikidata item Q917303. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
