The Murray-Darling Basin is an important ecosystem in Australia that supports thousands of birds and this year there has been a bird breeding boom, thanks to a couple of floods. This is the first time in nearly a decade that there has been a breeding event on this scale. It means many birds have had a vital boost to their population. Join me to find out more.

Special thanks to the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment for providing information and a fact check on this episode.

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Notes:

• Murray-Darling Basin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darling_River
• Water bird baby boom: https://www.awe.gov.au/water/cewo/media-release/waterbird-baby-boom-expected-early-2022
• Australian White Ibis: https://ebird.org/species/ausibi1?siteLanguage=en_AU#:~:text=Common%20white%20and%20black%20ibis,its%20habit%20of%20scavenging%20food.
• Straw-necked Ibis: https://ebird.org/species/stnibi1?siteLanguage=en_AU
• Royal Spoonbill: https://ebird.org/australia/species/royspo1/AU-VIC-GGE
• Australian Pelican: https://ebird.org/species/auspel1?siteLanguage=en_AU
• Intermediate Egret (I say Heron in the ep, but I mean Egret): https://ebird.org/species/integr?siteLanguage=en_AU
• Bin Chicken song (explicit): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO-OpFjHRbE&ab_channel=VanVuurenBros
• Pelican eats pigeon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sTUSnUgDXI&ab_channel=Videoss4Fun
• La Nina: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Ni%C3%B1a
• Commonwealth Environment Water Office: https://www.awe.gov.au/water/cewo
• Murray-Darling Local Engagement Officers: https://www.awe.gov.au/water/cewo/local-engagement
• Stay up to date on the birds CEWH twitter: https://twitter.com/theCEWH