The Lake Pleasant View System Important Bird Area comprises three shallow freshwater lakes, about five kilometres apart from each other. The lakes lie near the town of Manypeaks

Manypeaks, Western Australia

Manypeaks is a town located 434 km south-east of Perth and 38 km north-east of Albany in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. The township is on the South Coast Highway close to the intersection with Howie Road. The closest towns to Manypeaks are both on the South Coast highway...

, and 35 km north-east of Albany

Albany, Western Australia

Albany is a port city in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, some 418 km SE of Perth, the state capital. As of 2009, Albany's population was estimated at 33,600, making it the 6th-largest city in the state....

, in the Great Southern region of south-west Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

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Description

The lakes include Lake Pleasant View, with North Sister East and North Sister West Lakes. They are characterised by closed communities of sedges

Cyperaceae

Cyperaceae are a family of monocotyledonous graminoid flowering plants known as sedges, which superficially resemble grasses or rushes. The family is large, with some 5,500 species described in about 109 genera. These species are widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group...

 forming freshwater marsh

Marsh

In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, other herbaceous plants, and moss....

es on peat

Peat

Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter or histosol. Peat forms in wetland bogs, moors, muskegs, pocosins, mires, and peat swamp forests. Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world...

 substrates. The lake margins support other species of wetland plants as well as Saltwater Paperbark

Melaleuca cuticularis

Melaleuca cuticularis, or Saltwater Paperbark is a native tree of Western Australia.- Description :M. cuticularis is a tree that typically grows to a height of - and is fairly dense....

 open shrubland

Shrubland

Shrubland, scrubland, scrub or brush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity...

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Birds

The three lakes, with a collective area of 434 ha, have been identified by BirdLife International

BirdLife International

BirdLife International is a global Partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources...

 as an Important Bird Area

Important Bird Area

An Important Bird Area is an area recognized as being globally important habitat for the conservation of bird populations. Currently there are about 10,000 IBAs worldwide. The program was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife International...

 (IBA) because they support a population of the endangered Australasian Bittern

Australasian Bittern

The Australasian Bittern , also known as the Brown Bittern, is found in south-western and south-eastern Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, New Caledonia and Ouvea. Populations in Australia and New Zealand have declined in the 20th century.It is a large bittern, patterned and streaked brown, buff...

, with up to ten breeding pairs present. The IBA supports large numbers of Little Grassbird

Little Grassbird

The Little Grassbird is a species of Old World warbler in the Locustellidae family. It is found in Australia and in West Papua, Indonesia.-References:* BirdLife International 2004. . Downloaded on 10 July 2007....

s, while Western Rosella

Western Rosella

The Western Rosella Platycercus icterotis, less commonly known as the Stanley Rosella, Earl of Derby's parakeet or Yellow-cheeked parakeet, is the smallest species of rosella and is found in the South West of Australia. in Eucalypt forests and timbered areas. These are smallish parrots measuring ...

s, Red-capped Parrot

Red-capped Parrot

The Red-capped Parrot , also called the Pileated Parakeet , and King Parrot locally in Western Australia, is an Australian species of broad-tailed parrot related to the Rosellas.First described by German naturalist Heinrich Kuhl in 1820, from a collection in Albany,...

s, Red-winged Fairy-wren

Red-winged Fairy-wren

The Red-winged Fairywren is a species of passerine bird in the Maluridae family. It is sedentary and endemic to the southwestern corner of Western Australia...

s, Western Thornbill

Western Thornbill

The Western Thornbill is a species of bird in the Pardalotidae family.It is endemic to Australia.Its natural habitat is Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation....

s, Western Spinebill

Western Spinebill

The Western Spinebill, Acanthorhynchus superciliosus, is a honeyeater found in the heath and woodland of south-western Western Australia. It ranges between long, and weighs around . It has a black head, gray back and wings, with a red band behind its neck and from its throat to its breast. There...

s and Red-eared Firetail

Red-eared Firetail

The Red-eared Firetail is a species of estrildid finch found in the forests and coastal thickets of south-western Australia. It has an estimated global extent of occurrence of 20,000 - 50,000 km². The status of the species is evaluated as Least Concern.-References:...

s occur in the surrounding bushland

Bushland

Bushland is any area in Australia that is predominantly indigenous flora and fauna.Bushland is the term commonly used by conservation protection groups and other environmental groups as a blanket term for natural vegetation, which may cover any kind of habitat from open shrubby country with few...

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