Residents in Menindee, the far-west New South Wales town now synonymous with ecological demise, are worried for the rich and rare birdlife that relies on the area to breed.

The mass death of more than a million fish at the Darling River town early this year was attributed to a combination of blue-green algae, drought and water mismanagement.

And while birds remain largely unaffected by the algae, the lack of water in the river and the adjoining lakes has made much of the area inhospitable as a breeding ground for hundreds of species.

Geoff Looney, who has been watching and photographing birds in the area for more than 15 years, said many species that would typically migrate to the area had not shown up over the past year.

"Rainbow bee-eaters didn't arrive [to breed] this year, and all the wrens just completely disappeared when we had no water in the lakes," he said.

"Usually in April, the red-necked stints come here to fatten up to go on migration back to Siberia; I never saw one this year."

Geoff Looney has has been photographing the birds of Menindee for more than 15 years. ( ABC Broken Hill: Aimee Volkofsky )

Another Menindee local, Bruce Knight, collects data for Bird Life Australia and the NSW Bird Atlassers. He said while he was eager to assure potential visitors there was still plenty of birdlife to observe, the decline was impossible to ignore.

"I went for a two-hour stroll this morning down the Corndilla channel, and in two hours I clocked up 29 bird species, including a grey-fronted honeyeater, which is a rare visitor here," he said.

"In a good year, I'd clock up, in the same time, about 50 to 60 species."

Smaller booms and bigger busts

While the Menindee Lakes' ecology functions in a natural pattern of flooding and drying, recent droughts have seen more extreme drying than previously recorded.

Mr Knight said the boom-bust cycles were starting to favour bust.

"As you look at information over the years, the booms are getting quieter and the busts are getting bigger and more dire."

He said the broader impacts of climate change were also making it harder for birds that might have had alternatives to the lakes in past dry years.

"Prior to this, when the Menindee Lakes dried off, they'd pack their bags and move off, but there are becoming fewer and fewer places for them to retreat to."

Box Hollow off Menindee Lakes is one of the last waterbird habitats as the system dries up. ( Supplied: Geoff Looney )

'There may have been extinctions'

The Menindee Lakes are an integral breeding ground for the hundreds bird, fish, mammal, reptile and macroinvertebrate species in the Murray-Darling Basin, one of the richest ecologies in the country.

At least 35 of those bird species are endangered.

Ecologist Paul Humphries said it was hard to quantify just how much damage had been done in the basin, as the recording of species started well after colonisation.

"There may have been extinctions, but we don't know that they've happened," he said.

"There's a lot of new genetic work being done that suggests there are a lot more species out there than we give credit for."

The fish kills would have larger and ongoing repercussions, he added.

"It's like an economy; you've got accountants and teachers and doctors — if you lose one of those components, it would cause major disruptions."

A dust storm blows through the dry Lake Menindee in January. ( Supplied: Geoff Looney )

Calls to stop politicking

In a statement, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) said it was aware of the problems faced by birds in the system.

"Waterbird numbers have been in decline in the Murray-Darling Basin as the impacts of development, the current drought, the millennium drought and climate change have affected the flows to our rivers, lakes and wetlands," it said.

"State agencies monitor fish, bird and vegetation health and report their findings to the MDBA for basin-wide assessment.

"The MDBA also funds the monitoring of waterbird health through an annual aerial survey of wetlands across the basin, including Menindee Lakes."

Mr Knight said he was worried the authority was taking too long to come up with a plan.

"[I want] people to stop politicking about it and come up with a scheme — everybody's obfuscating," he said.

Some birds, like this blue-faced honeyeater, have still shown up this year. ( Supplied: Geoff Looney )

Neglected rivers will 'bite us'

A recent report by the United Nations warned the likely extinction of more than a million species across the globe was due almost entirely to humans.

Mr Humphries said all species in the Murray-Darling Basin were under serious threat from human life.

"If we as a species want to survive on a planet that is worth living on, we have to recognise that we live within an environment and an ecosystem which relies on natural processes.

"If we don't treat these rivers right, they'll come back to bite us on the bum."

A black-winged stilt (rear) and a critically endangered curlew sandpiper photographed at Menindee Lakes in 2018. ( Supplied: Geoff Looney )

For people like Mr Looney who choose to live at Menindee Lakes to be close to the wildlife, the loss of species is a tragedy.

"We have curlew sandpipers here; they are critically endangered in the world and [just before] Menindee Lake drained, I photographed 11 of them in it," he said.

"This year, I haven't seen the curlew sandpipers like they were last year.

"If they're not coming here, where are they going to?"