Courting disaster: loss and long-term recovery of Tooth-billed Bowerbird courts after two tropical cyclones

Climate change is the only known threat to Tooth-billed Bowerbirds and may include the impacts of tropical cyclones (TCs) which damage court sites and food resources. We monitored three groups of courts on the Atherton Tablelands, Queensland, for 15 years after TC Larry (2006) and TC Yasi (2011) which damaged the surrounding forest. Court numbers fell sharply after TC Larry, remained depressed following TC Yasi, and persisted at 50–60% of pre-Larry levels for over a decade. Recovery of court numbers began only after 10–12 years, reaching 86% of pre-Larry numbers across the three groups by 2020. Most courts were re-established in traditional locations, and leaf-decorating ‘cultures’ were maintained. Although TC Larry, probably exacerbated by TC Yasi, had severe and long-lasting effects on the number of Tooth-billed Bowerbird courts, we assume that forest resources recovered sufficiently within the species’ life span to allow surviving males to re-establish courts. With more frequent intense cyclones under climate change, Tooth-billed Bowerbird groups impacted by such events may be at heightened risk of local extirpation.