The Dunn Rock and Lake King Important Bird Area is a 759 km² irregularly shaped tract of land in the south-eastern wheatbelt region of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. It lies about 380 km south-east of

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

and 250 km north-east of Albany.

Description

The boundaries of the

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) are defined by the remnant native vegetation associated with Pallarup, Dunn Rock, and Lake King Nature Reserves and adjacent unallocated Crown Land. It is surrounded by land cleared for farming. The site is one of the largest remaining mallee remnants within the wheatbelt, containing

plant communities A plant community is a collection or Association (ecology), association of plant species within a designated geographical unit, which forms a relatively uniform patch, distinguishable from neighboring patches of different vegetation types. The comp ...

that have largely been cleared elsewhere. It consists mainly of mallee, mallee-heath, and salt pans and receives around 400 mm of rain annually.BirdLife International.

Birds

The IBA contains the core habitat for the

malleefowl The malleefowl (''Leipoa ocellata'') is a stocky ground-dwelling Australian bird about the size of a domestic chicken (to which it is distantly related). It is notable for the large nesting mounds constructed by the males and lack of parental ca ...

and supports a significant species population. Other birds for which the IBA is an important site include the Carnaby's cockatoo,

red-capped parrot The red-capped parrot (''Purpureicephalus spurius'') is a species of broad-tailed parrot native to southwestern Australia. It was described by Heinrich Kuhl in 1820, with no subspecies recognised. It has long been classified in its own genus ...

, western rosella,

regent parrot The regent parrot or rock pebbler (''Polytelis anthopeplus'') is a bird found in southern Australia. It has predominantly yellow plumage with a green tail. The bird is found primarily in eucalyptus groves and other wooded areas of subtropical ...

, blue-breasted fairywren, purple-gaped honeyeater, and western yellow robin.Birdata.

References

Notes

Sources

* * {{coord, 33, 14, 10, S, 119, 31, 19, E, display=title, region:AU-WA_type:landmark Wheatbelt (Western Australia) Important Bird Areas of Western Australia