The Eyre Peninsula Landscape Board is asking locals to get involved in its citizen science projects, in particular it’s looking for sightings of threatened birds and echidnas.

“We recently identified six birds that are threatened on the Eyre Peninsula and have started a new citizen science project around these birds,” says Monitoring and Evaluation Officer with the Eyre Peninsula Landscape Board, Michelle Clanahan.

“We’ve called these our ‘iconic birds’ and we are asking for locals to keep an eye out for them and use our citizen science website to let us know when they see any.

“These are birds that are easily identified, so it’s a great project for people to get involved in and contribute to the conservation of these birds.”

The Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo, White-Bellied Sea Eagle, Osprey, Little Penguin, Bush Stone-curlew and Australian Bustard are the birds being monitored in the iconic birds citizen science project.

“The Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo is actually critically endangered on the Eyre Peninsula,” says Ms Clanahan.

“By getting a better understanding about how the populations of these birds are tracking we can adapt how we manage them and take conservation actions where needed.”

The Eyre Peninsula Landscape Board runs another seven citizen science projects focusing on koalas, echidnas, goannas, other birds (for experienced bird watchers), malleefowl, king tides, and also long-term changes in the environment through PixStix sites.

The landscape board also supports FrogWatch SA and the SA Whale Centre’s whale spotting.

“Citizen science is really about gathering data so that we can better manage these threatened species,” says Ms Clanahan.

“Participation by the community is invaluable in helping us collect data that we couldn’t otherwise get.”

The EP echidna citizen science project was started last year and there has only been four sightings recorded so far.

“Echidna are difficult to monitor, so any data we can get adds to our knowledge of the distribution of these species,” Ms Clanahan says.

For further information visit www.landscape.sa.gov.au/ep/get-involved/citizen-science or go direct to www.epiconicbirds.com.au or www.epechidnas.com.au.