This special issue, presented in conjunction with the Queensland Poetry Festival 2012, features a genus poem by Canadian poet a.rawlings and ten species spawned from its lines.

In Australia, endemic species are prevalent within the biodiverse state of Queensland. Of approximately 600 bird species identified in Queensland, over 235 species are considered endemic. In Icelandic, endemi means 'notorious'. As an ecological term in English, 'endemic' denotes an indigenous species unique to a specified geographic location and not found elsewhere worldwide.

GIBBERBIRD traces a foreigner’s first tenuous steps into Queensland’s ornithological lexicon via unorthodox categorization and linguistic sorting methods.

This species has a very large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). The population trend appears to be increasing, and hence the species does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size has not been quantified, but it is not believed to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure) – IUCN.

Curator: Sarah Gory | Release date: 15 August 2012