North-west Tasmanian Coast Important Bird Area

The Important Bird Area (IBA) is defined as the 10 km-wide coastal fringe extending along the western coast of Tasmania from Low Rocky Point in the south to Rocky Cape in the north, constituting the mainland Tasmanian section of migratory habitat used by orange-bellied parrots.

[1] The coast is characterised by rocky headlands, sandy beaches and sand dunes, and is backed by a coastal plain containing lagoons, swamps, heathland, eucalypt forests and woodlands, and areas of buttongrass.

[1] The site has been identified by BirdLife International as an IBA because it regularly supports critically endangered orange-bellied parrots on their annual migration between the breeding ground in South West Tasmania and the wintering sites in coastal mainland south-eastern Australia.

It also provides non-breeding habitat for swift parrots and supports populations of fairy terns, hooded plovers, Cape Barren geese and pied oystercatchers, as well as most of Tasmania's endemic bird species.

[2] Other birds recorded from the site include sooty oystercatchers, eastern ground parrots, flame and pink robins, tawny-crowned honeyeaters and southern emu-wrens.