AUSTRALIAN bird species are in crisis with at least 50 endangered or critically endangered and many of these in Queensland.

Federal Environment Department figures show 23 birds are already extinct.

Only about 50 mature individuals of the critically endangered eastern bristlebird from the Border Ranges remain in a fragmented population which is declining, primarily due to inappropriate fire regimes.

The Australian painted snipe population from the Channel Country, Cape York and Fitzroy River has dropped by more than 30 per cent.

The black-throated finch, found only in Queensland, is listed as vulnerable with fewer than 10,000 mature individuals.

Pastoralism, drought and fire are thought to have had the greatest impact but the finch also will lose crucial habitat if the State Government approves Clive Palmer's proposal to mine in the Bimblebox Nature Reserve in central Queensland.

BirdLife Australia chief executive Graeme Hamilton said the IUCN Red List four-yearly update on birds released yesterday described a global tragedy that was mirrored in Australia.

The finch had suffered a huge decline in just a couple of decades as clearing and the planting of exotic cattle grazing species such as buffel grass replaced native grasses upon which the birds fed.

"In the 200-plus years since Europeans arrived in Australia we have so diminished our natural capital that 234 Australian birds are either extinct, threatened with extinction or near threatened," Dr Hamilton said.

The update is a review of more than 10,000 bird species.

"These figures should be a call for action rather than an excuse to abandon species as lost causes. Every one of Australia's threatened birds can be saved," Dr Hamilton said.

Critically endangered birds include the orange-bellied parrot, regent honeyeater, grey-headed albatross, Christmas Island frigatebird, Norfolk Island Tasman parakeet, western ground parrot and the star finch, which is possibly extinct.

Good news stories include an increase in numbers of the hooded plover, the black-eared miner and Gould's Petrel.

Originally published as Bye birdies: fears for 50 Aussie species