Yellow Chats

Situated pride of place of town, Caitlin's second mural showcases her ability to create a stunning, lifelike mural that captures the attention of locals and tourist alike, while also educating the public on the endangered native species the Capricorn Yellow Chat. 

The Capricorn Yellow Chat is a small songbird that lives in coastal areas of Capricornia and nowhere else in the world. There are only around 250 surviving in small populations of 50 or so individual birds from Curtis Island to Broadsound. They are listed as Endangered under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992, and as Critically Endangered under the Commonwealth Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. They are a particularly beautiful bird with their bright yellow colouring and the male has a distinctive black crescent on its breast.

They live in the harsh treeless environments of marine plains especially along water channels with sedges where they forage for insects. They nest in grassy clumps near the ground which makes them susceptible to predation by foxes and feral cats. Feral pigs also destroy their habitat and nests when they dig up the ground looking for tubers.

BirdLife Capricornia and a team from Central Queensland University have been conducting research and monitoring the populations for around 20 years to determine their feeding, breeding, habitat preferences, movements and population trends as well as to understand the factors that are threatening them. One of the major threats is sea level rise which will inundate most of their habitat by the end of the century.