Fervent appeals have gone to the community once more for help to find the source of an insecticide that has already killed hundreds of native birds at Dubbo.
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The discovery of a third sick raptor and another "couple of dozen" sick and dead bodies lent urgency to the messages from the NSW Environment Protection Authority and wildlife rescue group WIRES yesterday.
The two organisations renewed their calls in the wake of the receipt of test results that confirmed that the deaths of an estimated 700 cockatoos, corellas and galahs were likely caused by restricted insecticide fenthion.
WIRES Dubbo chairwoman Ann Mara said late on Tuesday the substance had already wreaked great and ongoing harm to the bird population in the past 10 days.
WIRES volunteers had picked up almost 600 birds, but bodies they had been unable to recover took the toll to a likely 700, she said.
Only 30 birds had been saved from the popular native bird breeding site of Troy Reserve just north of Dubbo and other affected zones, she reported.
Ms Mara feared the area's flock of little corellas had been "just about destroyed".
Without knowing the source of the insecticide the release of the surviving birds was not on the agenda.
"It is important that we find how birds are ingesting this insecticide and learn how we can mitigate this problem in the future," Ms Mara said.
"Until then WIRES will be unable to release those 30 birds that have been saved back to the wild."
The EPA already indicated it would be involved in cleaning up the insecticide if the source was found.
Yesterday it continued its investigation and urged anyone with information to contact its Enviro Line on 131 555.
"These things can take some time, it can be a complex process to locate the source," an EPA spokeswoman said.
WIRES raised concerns the poison was spreading up the food chain on Monday after the discovery of two seriously ill whistling kites were found at Troy Reserve.
Yesterday a spokeswoman for Taronga Western Plains Zoo, where they were taken on their rescue, said they had started to respond to treatment but warned it was "still very much early days for these birds".
A WIRES spokesman yesterday reported a third whistling kite came into care late on Tuesday and was in a critical condition.
There had been a couple of dozen birds found yesterday that were either dead or sick but no "large drops" or any finds in new areas, he said.
Despite concerns about water contamination from carcasses, samples from the Macquarie River showed no traces of fenthion, the EPA reported on Tuesday.
