Fragile Lives

Reflections on extinction

Buff-banded Rail posing for the camera. Atherton Tablelands, Far North Queensland. © Bronwen Scott

As I write this, I can hear a bird call. It’s an insistent, high-pitched ‘peep’, which could belong to any bird except that it comes from a thicket of weeds along the fence line. Not many birds would hide in such a tangle. This is where the snakes live.

It could belong to any bird, but close up the call reveals its weirdness. The ‘peep’ is accompanied by a deep…