The Story So Far2012 - 2016

A curious rice grower photograped somestrange birds in his crop, triggering theRicegrowers' Association of Australia,Birdlife Australia, Riverina Local LandServices and other organisations to cometogether to learn more about bitterns inrice and see what could be done to aid intheir conservation.

Since 2012, the Bitterns in Rice Project hasbeen uncovering the well-guarded secretsof Australia’s Bunyip Bird – the globallyendangered Australasian Bittern – andraising awareness of its plight. Bitternsarrive in rice crops about two months aftersowing and begin nesting once there issufficient cover. We now know that ricegrowers in the New South Wales Riverinaare custodians of the world's largestknown breeding population.

"If we can help bitterns by providingthem with a habitat to live in andbreed in then it's a win-win situationfor everyone."Coleambally Rice Farmer, Ian Payne

The Bitterns in Rice Project

Farming and Nature Conservation

Global demand for food continues to grow,while biodiversity continues to decline.Dedicated conservation areas, such asnational parks, are central in protectingbiodiversity but need to be complementedby conservation on private land.Sustainable agriculture, rich in wildlife,can help bridge the gap if land and waterare managed for both farming and natureconservation, rather than one or the other.The Bitterns in Rice Project is aboutuniting two traditionally separate schoolsof thought, and using land and water fordual purposes. Our vision is to see bitternsand other significant wildlife prosperalongside productive rice farming;building on existing habitat values, anddemonstrating that agriculture andwildlife conservation can work together.The potential is enormous.

Table of ContentsBittern facts 3

How many bitterns? 5

Bittern breeding 7

Bittern-friendly rice 9

Bittern tracking 13

Painted snipe 17

Bell frogs 17

Beyond bitterns 18

Acknowledgements 18

Identification: commonly confused withthe smaller, tree-roosting Nankeen Night-Heron that often occurs in flocks and isseen feeding around rice fields at night.Australasian Bitterns are not known toroost in trees and only rarely occur inloose flocks of five or more.

Juvenile and immature Nankeen Night-Herons lack the orange-brown plumage ofadults and can have a similar mottledbrown plumage to bitterns. Otherwise,bitterns are the only large, brownishheron-like waterbirds found in the ricefields of the NSW Riverina.

Scientific name: Botaurus poiciloptilus

Size: with necked stretched up, can standabout a metre tall. Males are larger thanfemales (875-2085 gms versus 571-1135gms). Wingpsan: 1050-1180 cms.

Habitat: shallow wetlands with vegetationlike reeds, rushes, sedges, canegrass, rice.

Diet: fish, frogs, yabbies, small mammals,insects, lizards.

Breeding: poorly known. Usually four orfive eggs in well-hidden platform nestabout 10-30 cm above water level.Incubation approx. 23 days; chicks leavenest after about two weeks, then take afurther five weeks until fledging. Appearsthat only female incubates & raises young.

Movements: poorly known. Responds toflooding of ephemeral inland wetlands,probably sometimes from coastal refuges.

Relatives: three other species in Botaurusgroup not found in Australasia: theAmerican Bittern, Pinnated Bittern andEurasian/Great Bittern. Two other bitternsfound in Australia (Ixobrychus group): BlackBittern and Australian Little Bittern.

Mice are among the prey bitterns pursue.

Juvenile Nankeen Night-Heron

Bittern eggs are similar in size to smallchicken and bantam eggs.

Bittern facts

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Mark Robb

Peter O'Connell

Map: IUCN

The Bunyip Bird & Booming Males

The deep, booming calls given by malesduring the breeding season helped giverise to legends of Australia's mythicalBunyip. Various Indigenous groups, andlater, European colonists, told tales of afearsome, elusive creature living in theswamps.

The call can be heard for about twokilometres. The best time to listen for it isat dawn or dusk, but they can boomthroughout the day and night. Becausebitterns are so sneaky and hide in wetlandvegetation, the booming of males is auseful way of learning they're present.

Globally Endangered Species

It is estimated that only 1500-4000Australasian Bitterns remain in the world,with the International Union forConservation of Nature (IUCN) classifyingthem as Endangered. The AustralianGovernment also considers the speciesEndangered. The largest remainingpopulations occur in south-easternAustralia and New Zealand, with smallerpopulations persisting in Tasmania, south-west WA and possibly still New Caledonia.

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Masters of sneakiness and stealth: thisAustralasian Bittern eyes off potential preyon the edge of a rice crop near Jerilderie.

Peter Merritt

Since 2012, a key aspect of our work hasbeen determining the size of the bitternpopulation using rice crops each season.Our method is standardised 1-hour surveysaround dawn and dusk on randomlyselected rice farms with aerially-sown rice.

The random approach means our resultsare representative, giving us confidence inextrapolating them. A key survey windowexists in summer when males arebooming, but before the rice is too tall,making observation difficult.

We have more data analysis to do and areyet to apply the random approach tosurveys in the Murray Valley. Bitternnumbers also vary between years, largelyas a result of the amount of rice grown.

Nonetheless, it is already clear that inmost years the rice attracts approximately750 bitterns (500-1000). This isremarkable as it equates to around 40% ofthe global population. Riverina rice cropssupport the largest known AustralasianBittern breeding population in the world.

Four bitterns in one bay, early in thebreeding season, a rare sight.

How many bitternsuse rice crops?

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During the last two seasons (2014-16), weexpanded our random sampling approachfrom the Coleambally Irrigation Area (CIA)to include the Murrumbidgee IrrigationArea (MIA). The 2014-15 season, with 67000 hectares of rice, produced someparticularly insightful results. We had 80sites, 23-30 hectares each, on 41 randomlyselected farms with aerially-sown rice (seemap above). After just two surveys at eachsite, bitterns were recorded on 37% offarms and 26% of sites. When bitternswere recorded, it usually involved one or

two individuals, but additional surveysoften revealed the presence of more. Forexample, one farm was found to supporteight bitterns and at least three nests. The2015-16 season saw just 22 000 hectares,with stiff competition among bitterns.Unusually, some rice fields had more thanone booming male. During harvest time,bitterns concentrate in the remainingcrops. In 2015, we found two farms, onenear Leeton and one near Coleambally,that together had at least 26 bitterns;about 1% of the global population.

"I'm pleased that by growingrice we can support suchlarge numbers of theendangered bittern."Griffith Rice Farmer, Gary Andreazza

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2014-2015 rice season study sites

It's now clear there is widespread breedingof bitterns in rice crops and that they canbreed successfully, producing fully fledgedyoung before harvest. The randomsampling approach, together with surveysnear the end of the season, have beencentral in revealing this.

It's remarkable that these constructed,agricultural wetlands can yield ten or sotonnes of rice per hectare, as well asfuture generations of one of the world'srarest, most threatened waterbird species;the Australasian Bittern.

But three of the 16 nests found in ricecrops may have not had sufficient time forthe chicks to fledge before harvest. Thishighlights opportunities to increasebreeding success by encouraging earlybreeding and providing habitat adjacent torice crops for the chicks to roam to.

Widespread and successful breeding

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Left: Neil Bull with a 13-day-old chick nearGriffith. Itwas fromoneof threenests foundin adjacent rice bays, each with anattending female, all within the territory of asingle booming male. This confirmedpolygamy, and although simple pairs arecommon, it explained why there are oftenthree or four adult bitterns found in a singlerice field during the breeding season.Left: An 18-day old chick nearColeambally, already 50 metres from itsnest, hiding in Barnyard Grass on a bank.Below: Chicks like this one that havehatched before the end of January havesufficient time to fledge prior to harvest,which usually peaks in April. When afemalebittern layshereggs, it's about threeweeks before they hatch and then anotherseven or eight weeks before the young areable to fly.Below, left:A recently fledged bittern in anadvanced rice crop before harvest.

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Bittern friendly rice growingIn May 2014, we launched the first editionof our Bittern Friendly Rice Growing Tips.This work in progress is a crucial part ofthe Bitterns in Rice Project, enabling ricegrowers to take the lead on bitternconservation. They are for rice growers inthe New South Wales Riverina that arekeen and able to help conserve thisspecial bird. We are now able toincorporate our collective knowledge upto July 2016 and refine them to three keytips: 1) early permanent water; 2) reducepredator impact; and 3) create additionalhabitat.

1. Early Permanent Water

Bitterns usually don't arrive in rice cropsuntil about two months after sowing, oncesufficient prey and cover have established.The timing of the rice season meansbittern breeding tends to be delayed andbitterns show a strong preference foraerially sown crops with permanent waterapplied around October. Direct-drill crops,on the other hand, typically don't receivetheir permanent water until December.Driven by water savings, these crops areincreasingly common. Mid-seasondrainage and shorter season varieties arealso likely to reduce opportunities forsuccessul bittern breeding.

During the 2015-16 rice season, we lookedin detail at bittern prey, comparingdifferent sowing methods and watermanagement. Carp, Mosquitofish,dragonfly larvae, water beetles and arange of other animals were found, but byfar the most important prey were tadpoles.During the early-mid part of the riceseason, when male bitterns wereestablishing territories and breeding wascommencing, aerial sown crops with earlypermanent water supported an average of12.3 times as many tadpoles as direct-drillcrops with delayed permanent water.During the mid-season, when there werehungry chicks to feed, the different cropswere more similar but those with earlypermanent water still had 6.4 times asmany tadpoles. Pesticide regimes and thequality of adjacent habitat like supplychannels, as well as other factors, may alsoimpact the abundance of bittern prey.

Above:Abundant tadpoles fromanaeriallysown crop, including endangeredSouthern Bell Frogs (inset), SpottedMarshFrogs and Barking Marsh Frogs.Above, left: Mark Robb radio trackingbittern chicks in a crop that receivedpermanent water in October.Left: Prey sampling during the 2015-16rice season.Far left: A direct-drill crop, with permanentwater delayed until December.

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"I've trialled bittern friendly rice cropping and I reckon there aremany benefits for the rice industry. Even if it means sacrificing

a small area of crop to ensure the long termviability and environmental sustainability ofour area, then I’m still all for it."

Coleambally Rice Farmer, Bernie Star

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2. Reduce Predator Impact

Foxes and cats are abundant around ricefields, and although our evidence islimited, they are likely to impact heavilyon bittern breeding success. Rice growerscould improve the chances of chickssurviving by providing more cover for theroaming chicks to hide in. We have seenchicks hiding in tall, thick Barnyard Grasson banks between bays and suspect coverlike this would reduce the risk of predationby foxes, cats and other predators. Grassybanks may also restrict predator access tothe rice field. Foxes in particular avoidmoving through dense vegetation. Directcontrol through shooting and baiting,coupled with the maintainence of cover,should boost the yield of young bitterns.

Bittern friendly rice growing

3. Create Additional Habitat

The management and creation ofadditional bittern habitat adjacent to or aspart of a rice field is one of the best thingsthat growers can do to benefit these birdsand other wildlife. From natural wetlandsto drainage channels and farm dams, thereare numerous opportunities. We're keen totrial dedicated habitat zones that can bemanaged independently of the rice cropand maintained between rice seasons.

These constructed wetlands wouldeffectively extend the season by providinghabitat early on in spring and throughautumn and winter when there is no rice.They would complement the existinghabitat values of rice fields and giveunfledged young somewhere to go atharvest time.

Management could target bittern habitatbut also cater for other threatened specieslike the Australian Painted Snipe andSouthern Bell Frog. Additional habitatsprovide alternative feeding and breedingsites, and the simple decision not to spraya channel, for example, could be thedifference between a chick fledging or not,or an adult deciding to stay for winter ornot.

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Above: This storage dam has excellentwaterbird habitat, with shallows andwaterplants. It could be used to supportbitterns early in the season and when therice has been drained and harvested.Left (two photos): A bare bank and agrassy bank, the latter supporting cover forbittern chicks.Below left: Foxes are likely to heavilyimpact bittern breeding success.Far left: Threatened SpeciesCommissioner, Gregory Andrews, with abittern chick. He visited rice growers in2016 and was enthusiastic about the ideaof promoting bittern friendly rice growing.Below: bittern in flight at harvest time.Below right: After the 2014-15 riceharvest, this Cumbungi-filled channelsupported four bitterns for several weeks.

Andrew Silcocks

Left: COG, a young male from nearLeeton, stayed local after the2015-16 riceseason ended.Right: Vin, an adult breeding male fromColeambally, dispersed 191 km towardsSydney, as the 2015-16 season ended.Far right, top: This four-hectare, well-vegetated dam near Leeton supported atleast eight bitterns during the 2014 non-breeding season.Far right, below: Matt Herring, AndrewSilcocks & Inka Veltheim, thrilled aftercatching Vin, bittern number 2.

The network of wetlands that the bitternsrely on from about May to November,when there is no rice, is slowly beingrevealed. Thanks to a successfulcrowdfunding effort, with the generoussupport of more than 300 people and 20community groups, we'll eventually beable to satellite track ten bitterns betweenrice seasons, following them whereverthey go. The first five have alreadyproduced some captivating results.

Targeted surveys of suspected non-breeding wetlands, together withobservations from rice farmers and thetracking results to date, highlight thevalue of a wide range of Riverinawetlands, including large swamps likeFivebough at Leeton (see backgroundimage), creeklines, channels, dams andirrigated wheat crops. Four of the first fivetracked bitterns eventually departed theRiverina at the end of the rice season, withthree settling in Victoria.

Where do the bitterns go after harvest?

Andrew Silcocks

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Robbie, a legendary bittern

On April 21st, 2015, the first everAustralasian Bittern to be satellite trackedwas away. Robbie, a 3-4 month old rice-bred male from Coleambally, was namedby the district's irrigation cooperative afterMark Robb, for his bitterns in rice work.

Initially, he stayed local, moving up to akilometre, but then on the afternoon ofApril 30th he began heading south-west,first appearing near Deniliquin. Wethought he was chasing unharvested ricebut he just kept going, eventually arrivingat the recently restored Pick Swamp, withthe unfamiliar sounds of nearby waves onthe South Australian coast. He thenheaded along the coast back into Victoria,settling at another recently restoredwetland, Long Swamp, after his 600 kmdispersal. He stayed for four monthsbefore returning to the Riverina in spring.He was too early for the next rice seasonthough and made his way back to PickSwamp and Long Swamp where he spentthe 2015-16 summer. His journey wasfollowed by thousands of people, as heconnected seemingly disparate regions.

Robbie the bittern, tracked for 323 days,provided unprecedented insight into themovements of Australasian Bitterns.

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Neil and Coly-Lion take centre stage

Shortly after losing contact with Robbie,we witnessed the impressive May 2016dispersal of Neil, a young male from nearLeeton. He flew 450 km via the WakoolRiver to Moodie Swamp, a superbcanegrass wetland near Benalla. Coly-Lion,an adult breeding male from Coleambally,was spotted by eagle-eyed birdwatchers atTootgarook Swamp near Melbourne afterhis transmitter failed. The light blue legband (see left) confirmed his identity.

Neil: 450 km -> Moodie Swamp

Coly-Lion: 395 km -> Tootgarook Swamp

Cameron Brown

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Large, shallow, vegetated wetlands

The tracked bitterns have used manydifferent wetland types while movingthrough the landscape. However, it's onlythe large, shallow, vegetated but treeless,freshwater swamps that support them forlong periods. A sufficient network ofwetlands like these, which provide bitternhabitat between rice seasons, is crucial. Inthe Riverina and northern Victoria, thereare opportunities to strategically useenvironmental water at key bittern sites.

Robbie: 600 km -> Long Swamp

Robbie, Neil, Vin and Coly-lion:Four of the first five tracked bitternsdeparted the Riverina at the end of the riceseason; three heading south to Victoria.

Pick Swamp

Jo Wood

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The Southern Bell Frog

An Australasian Bittern seizesa Southern Bell (GrowlingGrass) Frog, itself a nationallythreatened species.

The rice crops and irrigationinfrastructure around theColeambally and westernMurray Valley regions areimportant for these frogs.They are the only large frogscommonly found in rice. Thetadpoles, which can reach tencentimetres in length, aremost likely the preferredtadpoleprey for bitternswhenavailable.

The Australian Painted SnipeLike our bittern, this bird is nationally and globally endangered. Remarkably,during the 2012-2013 season, we learnt they can also use rice fields in their

hundreds, favouring the edges where there is mud and low cover.

Peter Merritt

Peter Menkhorst17

Over the last four years, we have learnt much about the other waterbirds andwildlife using rice fields, and we're keen on seeing them prosper alongside

bitterns. We have recorded 53 waterbird and seven frog species in rice, with atleast 18 breeding. We've found 11 species listed as threatened in New SouthWales, like the Brolga and Eastern Grass Owl.The populations of several

waterbirds, such as Baillon's Crake, Whiskered Tern and Glossy Ibis, are significant,probably numbering into the tens of thousands in some years. Migratory shorebirdsthat breed in Russia can be found. Populations of Spotted Marsh Frog may exceed

a billion in some years. There is much more to this story than bitterns.

The Bitterns in Rice Project is funded primarily by Riverina Local Land Services through the

Australian Government's National Landcare Programme. The working group comprises Neil Bull,

Matt Herring, Andrew Silcocks, Mark Robb, Anna Wilson, Inka Veltheim, Keith Hutton, Max

O'Sullivan, Daryl Gibbs, Wayne Robinson, Kimberley Beattie, Elisa Tack, Rick Webster and David

Parker. We gratefully acknowledge rice farmers, and previous funding and support from

Coleambally Irrigation, Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation, Norman

Wettenhall Foundation, Murray Local Land Services, NSW OEH, Murrumbidgee Field Naturalists,

Murrumbidgee Landcare, Murray Irrigation and Murrumbidgee Irrigation. This booklet was written

and compiled by Matt Herring (MH), July 2016. Photographs by MH unless indicated otherwise.

"One of the great benefits of being a rice groweris witnessing how many different species ofwildlife can benefit from the rice crop."Mayrung Rice Farmer,Shelley Scoullar

For the latest news on the Bitterns in Rice Project,including tracking updates:

www.bitternsinrice.com.au

Beyond bitterns

Acknowledgements

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This project is supported by Riverina Local Land Services throughfunding from the Australian Government's National Landcare Programme.