The conservation status of Australian malurids and their value as models in understanding land-management issues

The conservation status of many birds in Australia has been deteriorating in response to human activities. Changes to land-management practices are required to halt declines but, in many cases, the causal mechanisms of declines are poorly known and so it is difficult to provide appropriate management directives. Of the 23 Australian species of Maluridae, 12 have infrataxa that meet the criteria for inclusion within an IUCN Red List category. The family possesses characteristics that make it ideal for research relevant to improving conservation outcomes for the Maluridae and other threatened taxa: the family is widely distributed, has been exposed to the varying pressures that operate in diverse habitats across Australia, and infrataxa have broadly similar ecologies and yet disparate conservation listings. Here we describe the conservation status of the taxa within the Maluridae and outline how the family can be used as models to test mechanisms associated with declines and for developing concepts to enhance conservation management. We argue that disparate responses of sympatric malurids to the same land-management regimes can be used to identify characteristics that make species vulnerable to environmental pressures. Quantitative insights into how malurids respond to threatening processes may provide directives for management of a range of threatened species.