From the coasts to the plains, bird flu could threaten not just birds – but their homes

By Penny Olsen, Honorary Professor in Ecology and Evolution, Australian National University

Yesterday, I woke to a cold, damp Canberra morning – and silence. The trees around my home were empty of feathered silhouettes. Even the usual bright-eyed, warble-voiced magpies were absent.

The next morning, they were back. I don’t know why they went AWOL. But their absence felt like a taste of what might come as the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu spreads in Australia, affecting both birds and mammals.

Conservationists once asked: what is a bird without a tree to nest in?

This year,…

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