SHOREBIRD CONSERVATION IN AUSTRALIA
Shorebirds, also known as waders, are seen feeding around the edges of coastal beaches and shorelines, estuaries and mudflats, or inland lakes, lagoons and dams. While most frequent coastal or inland wetlands, a few species occur in grasslands, farmland and bushland.
While in Australia, migratory shorebirds begin to moult into breeding plumage before the long return flight to the Arctic.
This Black-tailed Godwit and male Bar-tailed Godwit are in full breeding plumage. The Bar-tailed Godwits at the back remain in non-breeding plumage, while some of the Great Knots at the front are in the process of moulting into breeding plumage. Roebuck Bay, north-western Australia.
FROM THE TAXONOMIC order Charadriiformes, shorebirds include plovers, sandpipers, stints, curlews, knots, snipes, godwits, avocets, stilts, oystercatchers, pratincoles, and some other species. (Terns and gulls are often grouped together with shorebirds as they too occur in many of the same habitats, but are not discussed here.)
Shorebirds come in different shapes and sizes, ranging from the tiny Red-necked Stint, which weighs only 30 g, to the Eastern Curlew, which can weigh up to 1.3 kg. They have a variety of bill shapes and sizes adapted to the different prey they feed on, and legs that vary from long to very long.
One spectacular feature of this group of birds is their movements, both within Australia and between the northern and southern hemispheres. In Australia there are 18 species of resident shorebird (those that live in Australia all year round), and at least 36 species that migrate each year from other countries to spend their non-breeding season here. A further 21 vagrant species are occasionally recorded in Australia
