Urban sprawl is wiping out Australia’s backyard-dwelling birds, say researchers, who have called for better protection for native vegetation as fires and natural disasters become more frequent.

A new measure called the “loss index” found more than 60 per cent of 262 native birds across NSW, Victoria and South Australia have each lost more than half of their original natural habitat and the vast majority of these species are not formally recognised as being threatened with extinction.

It’s a similar picture in the Brigalow Belt of central NSW and Queensland with some 180 different species affected by the removal of a single hectare of forest habitat in some parts of the Sunshine State.

Small amounts of native vegetation removal in cities for housing and infrastructure can have devastating impacts on a large number of Australia’s most common bird populations including the rainbow bee-eater, double-barred finch and the pale-headed rosella.

University of Queensland professor of environmental management Dr Martine Maron, and a researcher of the new measure, said bigger thinking was needed on how the country was connected.

“Are there corridors through our cities that we can maintain as habitat, especially in response to extreme events?” Dr Maron said, adding that birds that did survive bushfires and drought would migrate to the cities out of necessity.

“[City folk] will find animals and birds turn up in their backyards [looking for food and water].”

Dr Maron highlighted the importance of conserving native bird species now before it was too late.

“I think we can recognise how precious the last bits of native vegetation are … even the little bits of vegetation on roadsides, tiny parks and big trees,” Dr Maron said. “We need better protection of the areas of native vegetation we still have.

“We need to think about managing open, green space so they’re not just open parks but actually are diverse habitat so that animals other than humans can also use them.”

She said urban sprawl was undoubtedly chipping away at these creatures’ homes.

“A lot of the fringes of our cities are expanding in areas of natural vegetation,” Dr Maron said. “It’s definitely an issue around the fringes of Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.

“When the habitat goes, so do all the species including the birds. It is pretty sad, Australians love their birds.”

She said while Australians counted more than two million birds in this year’s Aussie backyard count, people were seeing more big, loud species including currawongs and magpies.

“All the little things are disappearing … fairy wrens, robins

“What our research showed and research of others showed is we’re already losing that diversity.

“Many of our bird species are threatened by extinction. They’ve gone from most of the landscape, they’ve gone from the places where people live.

“Most of our terrestrial birds don’t occur anywhere else in the world – because Australia has been isolated from the rest of the world, our birds have become really unique.

“The most proactive way is to rethink how we do urban development in the first place,” Dr Maron said, adding that her colleagues at RMIT were working on the idea of biodiversity-sensitive urban design.

“There’s this great idea about creating these amazing places to live that also supports rich diversity.”

Dr Maron said the model integrated habitat into our urban area and while it was innovative, it should be the norm.

She was also hopeful for the future despite urban sprawl pushing out almost all species.

“We can bring things back by maintaining as much as possible our native vegetation,” Dr Maron said.