Riverina Plains Important Bird Area
Encyclopedia
Grassland
Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses and other herbaceous plants . However, sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica...
in the Riverina
Riverina
The Riverina is an agricultural region of south-western New South Wales , Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, warm to hot climate and an ample supply of water for irrigation. This combination has allowed the Riverina to develop...
region of New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Much of the site lies roughly between Hay
Hay, New South Wales
Hay is a town in the western Riverina region of south western New South Wales , Australia. It is the administrative centre of Hay Shire Local Government Area and the centre of a prosperous and productive agricultural district on the wide Hay Plains....
, Jerilderie and Hanwood
Hanwood, New South Wales
Hanwood is a town in the central Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. The town is located 5 kilometres south of Griffith, New South Wales and is in the City of Griffith Local Government Area...
, straddling, but with most of it lying south of, the Murrumbidgee River
Murrumbidgee River
The Murrumbidgee River is a major river in the state of New South Wales, Australia, and the Australian Capital Territory . A major tributary of the Murray River, the Murrumbidgee flows in a west-northwesterly direction from the foot of Peppercorn Hill in the Fiery Range of the Snowy Mountains,...
. It adjoins the Murrumbidgee Red Gums
Murrumbidgee Red Gums Important Bird Area
The Murrumbidgee Red Gums Important Bird Area comprises a 2451 km2 discontinuous linear tract of land stretching along the Murrumbidgee River west, and downstream, from Wagga Wagga in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. It includes riverine Red Gum forest with adjacent woodland...
IBA.
Birds
The site has been identified by BirdLife InternationalBirdLife International
BirdLife International is a global Partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources...
as an Important Bird Area
Important Bird Area
An Important Bird Area is an area recognized as being globally important habitat for the conservation of bird populations. Currently there are about 10,000 IBAs worldwide. The program was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife International...
(IBA) because it contains most of the habitat suitable for Plains-wanderers in the Riverina. It also has good populations of other grassland birds, including Brown Songlark
Brown Songlark
The Brown Songlark , also Australian Songlark, is a small passerine bird found throughout much of Australia. A member of the Old World Warbler family, the species is notable for sexual size dimorphism, among the most pronounced in any bird...
s, Australasian Pipit
Australasian Pipit
The Australasian Pipit is a fairly small passerine bird of open country in Australia, New Zealand and New Guinea. It belongs to the pipit genus Anthus in the family Motacillidae....
s, Banded Lapwing
Banded Lapwing
The Banded Lapwing is a small to medium sized wader which belongs to the plover family. It is found over most of Australia and Tasmania though is absent from the northern third of the continent....
s and Singing Bushlark
Singing Bushlark
The Singing Bush Lark is a species of lark found in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia.- Range and population :The range of M. cantillans is quite extensive, with an estimated global Extent of Occurrence of 10,000,000 km2; and its global population is thought to be large, though it has...
s, as well as the arid
Desert climate
A desert climate , also known as an arid climate, is a climate that does not meet the criteria to be classified as a polar climate, and in which precipitation is too low to sustain any vegetation at all, or at most a very scanty scrub.An area that features this climate usually experiences less than...
biome
Biome
Biomes are climatically and geographically defined as similar climatic conditions on the Earth, such as communities of plants, animals, and soil organisms, and are often referred to as ecosystems. Some parts of the earth have more or less the same kind of abiotic and biotic factors spread over a...
restricted Inland Dotterel
Inland Dotterel
The Inland Dotterel also known as the Australian Dotterel and sometimes placed in the monotypic genus Peltohyas, is a medium-sized Charadriine plover.-Description:...
.