The King Island brown thornbill was designated the bird most likely to go extinct in Australia in the next 20 years and researchers were knocked back in their attempt to gain Commonwealth funding last year.

Funding was eventually provided by the Tasmanian government, allowing researchers from the Australian National University to trek through wilderness on King Island and capture footage of the birds - the most comprehensive study ever undertaken.

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A meeting will be held in June involving state and federal government representatives, conservationists, scientists and community members to discuss further conservation efforts in light of the discovery.

Kate Ravich, from Birds of King Island, said it showed how a proactive response was needed.

"In the past they'd been looking at the birds in just bits and pieces, but we'd never had any systematic search done," she said.

"This study had a core of eight or nine people here, and their job was to search and find them.

"If we'd had this information some years ago, then we could be much further down the road than we are now.

"With an election coming up, we need to be talking about how we don't want animals or species to get into this sort of position in the first place."

The amount of funding from the state government for the study - run in conjunction with BirdLife Australia and Cradle Coast natural resource management - was believed to be about $20,000.

Jenny Lau, of BirdLife Australia, said the funding required for these studies was "chicken feed" compared with other aspects of the budget.

She said more work needed to be done.

"The surveys are a huge leap forward in our understanding of where these birds are and the state of their habitat," Dr Lau said.

"Things that need to be discussed now are ways of improving protection of the habitat they're in and managing some of the threats to the birds within those patches of habitat.

"Do we need to introduce these birds in other patches of habitat on the island to manage the risk that we might lose them?"

King Island has undergone extensive land clearing in the past, particularly during the post-war soldier settlement scheme.

"These does come a point where if you want to hang on to these unique species, we'll have to think carefully about where we clear otherwise we'll lose them," Dr Lau said.