Voice of Real Australia: Little bird survives despite our bumbling best efforts

Not many people have ever heard of a Plains Wanderer.

Fewer still have even seen one.

Have a look at the little creature - the size of a quail, fleet of foot with unique camouflage designed to aid their survival.

Is that a bow-tie she's wearing?

They are jumpy and incredibly hard to spot when they are most active during the day.

I've been out looking with experts and didn't even see signs of them, a little pile of poo would have been a major find.

They are one of the world's most threatened birds - which is science speak for there's not many of them left.

As you will read, science has to take some of the blame for that.

Our job of protecting them has been woeful, comic even.

We are extremely lucky there's any of them left at all.

Plains Wanderers are an ancient species of native bird which are only found in a few grasslands in northern Victoria and the NSW Riverina.

The bird is so critically endangered and taxonomically unique it is ranked the number one priority for conservation action among birds of the world by the Zoological Society of London.

The first time I came across the bird was when a farmer mate of mine was complaining how he had been booted off a piece of Crown land leased by his family for generations.

Apparently a Plains Wanderer had been seen there.

That was it for farming, no grazing allowed.

My mate has never seen one there, nor had any member of his family.

About a decade I investigated claims our efforts to keep them were in fact killing them.

For that we visited Terrick Terrick National Park, near Pyramid Hill.

A big area of grassland had been placed off limits to grazing to allow populations of the little bird to recover.

Unfortunately between about 2011 and 2013 only one had been seen.

A local farmer claimed by removing grazing from the grasslands the park had become overgrown and was now a fire risk.

Plus, he said, the strategy of locking it up and leaving it was an encouragement for foxes to move in.

The grass had become so dense the little bird couldn't survive there.

The scientists couldn't agree, it was a bit of a shambles.

Well today I bring you good news, Mother Nature has come to the rescue in the form of La Nina.

Apparently there has been a major breeding event at the spot where we doubted any were left at all.

La Trobe University led research uncovered a record number of Plains Wanderers.

A survey uncovered 60 adults and 41 chicks where once people wondered whether they were lost forever.

"A further encouraging sign was that 85 per cent of monitoring sites supported Plains Wanderers - the highest percentage of sites since surveys began 12 years ago," the university said.

Experts are now arguing whether anything we humans have ever done has done any good at all.

Instead they said the three-year La Nina wet "facilitated a wide-spread and prolonged breeding event".

Just in the nick of time it seems.

Monitoring of the Plains Wanderer population on the Northern Plains of Victoria is funded by the National Landcare Program and supported by the North Central Catchment Management Authority and the Victorian government's Department of Environment, Land, Water, and Planning.

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