science

The State of Australia's Birds

The State of Australia's Birds is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The State of Australia's Birds rather than just read about it. In short: The State of Australia's Birds (SOAB) is a report series that tracks trends in Australia's bird populations. History 2003–2010 From 2003 to 2010, this was delivered as an annual report produced by the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (now known as BirdLife Australia) in the form of an illustrated colour magazine supplement.

Key takeaways

The State of Australia's Birds belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The State of Australia's Birds to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The State of Australia's Birds from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The State of Australia's Birds (SOAB) is a report series that tracks trends in Australia's bird populations.

History

2003–2010 From 2003 to 2010, this was delivered as an annual report produced by the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (now known as BirdLife Australia) in the form of an illustrated colour magazine supplement. The reports were published as supplements to Wingspan magazine. The 2003 and 2008 editions of SOAB were five-yearly overviews, while the other editions were themed on various aspects of Australian avifauna (for example, SOAB 2010 was themed on Birds and Islands).

2015 onwards The 2015 (SOAB) report launched the first Australian Bird Indices for terrestrial birds and introduces Australia's Red List Index (RLI), a means of tracking trends in the status of Australia's most threatened bird groups. BirdLife Australia planned to release a comprehensive SOAB report in 2020, that will include indices for all of Australia's bioregions, highlight trends for a wide range of terrestrial species, and provide an evaluation of the monitoring gaps. The 2020 report also aims to incorporate information from the National Environmental Science Program Threatened Species Index project, the first iteration of which was a Threatened Bird Index, showing declines across multiple threatened bird taxa.

Overview The SOAB reports collate and analyse information on trends in the conservation status of bird populations in Australia. Some of the material presented in SOAB is extracted from BirdLife Australia's monitoring projects, notably the Atlas of Australian Birds citizen science project. All issues are available for free download.

List of issues The State of Australia's Birds 2003 The State of Australia's Birds 2004: Water, wetlands and birds The State of Australia's Birds 2005: Woodlands and Birds The State of Australia's Birds 2006: Invasive Species The State of Australia's Birds 2007: Birds in a Changing Climate The State of Australia's Birds 2008: A Five Year Review The State of Australia's Birds 2009: Restoring Woodland Habitats for Birds The State of Australia's Birds 2010: Islands and Birds The State of Australia's Birds 2015: Headline Trends for Terrestrial Birds

References

Notes

Sources Ehmke, G., Cunningham, R., O’Connor, J., Garnett, S., Lau, J., Herman, K. (Eds). 2014. The State of Australia's Birds 2015: Headline Trends for Terrestrial Birds. BirdLife Australia, Melbourne. ISSN 2205-1597 Kirkwood, J. and O'Connor, J. (Eds). 2010. The State of Australia's Birds 2010: Islands and Birds. Supplement to Wingspan Vol. 20, No. 4, 2010. Birds Australia, Melbourne. ISSN 1036-7810. Olsen, P. (Ed). 2007. The State of Australia's Birds 2007: Birds in a Changing Climate. Supplement to Wingspan Vol. 17, No. 4, 2007. Birds Australia, Melbourne. ISSN 1036-7810. Olsen, P. (Ed). 2008. The State of Australia's Birds 2008: A Five Year Review. Supplement to Wingspan Vol. 18, No. 4, 2008. Birds Australia, Melbourne. ISSN 1036-7810. Olsen, P., Silcocks, A. and Weston, M. (Eds). 2006. The State of Australia's Birds 2006: Invasive Species. Supplement to Wingspan Vol. 16, No. 4, 2006. Birds Australia, Melbourne. ISSN 1036-7810. Olsen, P. and Weston, M. (Eds). 2004. The State of Australia's Birds 2004: Water, wetlands and birds. Supplement to Wingspan Vol. 14, No. 4, 2004. ISSN 1036-7810. Olsen, P., Weston, M., Cunningham, R. and Silcocks, A. (Eds). 2003. The State of Australia's Birds 2003. Supplement to Wingspan Vol. 13, No. 4, 2003. Birds Australia, Melbourne. ISSN 1036-7810. Olsen, P., Weston, M., Tzaros, C. and Silcocks, A. (Eds). 2005. The State of Australia's Birds 2005: Woodlands and Birds. Supplement to Wingspan Vol. 15, No. 4, 2005. Birds Australia, Melbourne. ISSN 1036-7810. Paton, D. and O'Connor, J. (Eds). 2009. The State of Australia's Birds 2009: Restoring Woodland Habitats for Birds. Supplement to Wingspan Vol. 19, No. 4, 2009. Birds Australia, Melbourne. ISSN 1036-7810.

External links BirdLife Australia

Illustrations

The State of Australia's Birds illustration

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The State of Australia's Birds

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The State of Australia's Birds claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The State of Australia's Birds before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The State of Australia's Birds ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The State of Australia's Birds

In research: The State of Australia's Birds appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The State of Australia's Birds in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The State of Australia's Birds is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2003 establishments in Australia, Annual magazines published in Australia, Bird conservation, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The State of Australia's Birds outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The State of Australia's Birds in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The State of Australia's Birds means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The State of Australia's Birds out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The State of Australia's Birds in simple terms?

The State of Australia's Birds (SOAB) is a report series that tracks trends in Australia's bird populations. History 2003–2010 From 2003 to 2010, this was delivered as an annual report produced by the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (now known as BirdLife Australia) in the form of an illust…

Why does The State of Australia's Birds matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The State of Australia's Birds?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The State of Australia's Birds.