SPECIES: Stagonopleura bella samueli — Western Beautiful Firetail
CLASSIFICATION: Endangered
Quite the beauty - is the Western Beautiful Firetail. A small, thick-set finch, olive-brown plumage, with a white chest patterned with dark lines and a dark mask across its face and eyes, blue eye rings, a thick red beak and a crimson rump (that would be the 'firetail'). Endemic to south-eastern Australia, they're a shy bird and by nature, and tend to never stray too far from their home.
Under threat from habitat clearing for urbanisation, habitat fragmentation, and predation by cats at the very least. Alarmingly, over the past 10 years, the population of the Western Beautiful Firetail has declined by over 50% - the population over on Kangaroo Island suffering immensely in the devastating bushfires on the Island over 2019/2020.