Migratory Shorebird Factsheet November 2014 The state of Australia’s migratory shorebirds Thirty-seven species of migratory shorebird visit Australia each year. These species carry out some of the most incredible migrations in the natural world. Each year, they journey many thousands of kilometres along the East Asian-Australasian flyway (Figure 1) between Australia and breeding grounds in the northern hemisphere. Australia’s coastal and freshwater wetlands provide vital habitat for these birds during their non-breeding season. Migratory shorebirds must increase their body weight by up to 70 per cent to build sufficient energy reserves to travel the long distance back to their breeding grounds. During high tide they rest nearby at suitable roosting sites, such as on ocean beaches or in salt marshes bordering coastal wetlands. Figure 1: Key sites on the East-Asian Australasian Flyway. Despite legislative protection and several international conservation agreements, many of these shorebirds have suffered massive population declines in the last 30 years. The population of the Curlew Sandpiper – once one of our most common migratory shorebirds – has declined by up to 80 per cent since the 1980s. Our largest shorebird, the Eastern Curlew, has seen a population crash of almost 50 per cent in the same period.
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Migratory Shorebird Factsheet November 2014
The state of Australia’s migratory shorebirds
Thirty-seven species of migratory shorebird visit Australia each year. These species carry out some of the most incredible migrations in the natural world. Each year, they journey many thousands of kilometres along the East Asian-Australasian flyway (Figure 1) between Australia and breeding grounds in the northern hemisphere.
Australia’s coastal and freshwater wetlands provide vital habitat for these birds during their non-breeding season. Migratory shorebirds must increase their body weight by up to 70 per cent to build sufficient energy reserves to travel the long distance back to their breeding grounds. During high tide they rest nearby at suitable roosting sites, such as on ocean beaches or in salt marshes bordering coastal wetlands.
Figure 1: Key sites on the East-Asian Australasian Flyway.
Despite legislative protection and several international conservation agreements, many of these shorebirds have suffered massive population declines in the last 30 years.
The population of the Curlew Sandpiper – once one of our most common migratory shorebirds – has declined by up to 80 per cent since the 1980s. Our largest shorebird, the Eastern Curlew, has seen a population crash of almost 50 per cent in the same period.
All along the flyway shorebird habitat is being subjected to a broad range of threats:
• Ports, industrial, and residential developments are destroying and degrading suitable shorebird habitat. Since European settlement approximately 50% of Australia's non-tidal wetlands have been converted to other uses.
• Disturbance from recreational activities such as off-road driving, fishing, jet boats, and off-leash dogs. Excessive disturbance can reduce the birds’ feeding time, or force them to move to less suitable habitat.
• Changes to hydrology including changes in flood frequency, salinity, acidity and nutrient levels.
• Pollution from agricultural, residential and catchment run-off e.g. excess nutrients, heavy metals, herbicides, pesticides and industrial waste.
• Invasive species - introduced plants (e.g. Water Hyacinth) and animals (e.g. Carp, Pigs)
• Extractive industries such as fishing, shellfish, seaweed and wrack harvesting
• Climate change – expected sea level rises, increased temperatures, and more frequent extreme weather events will further squeeze coastal habitats for shorebirds.
While large-scale habitat loss in SE Asia is likely to be the biggest factor contributing to the decline of migratory shorebirds, the incremental loss of habitat in Australia is also likely to be having an impact as many of our resident shorebirds are also declining. Table 1 illustrates some of the threats operating at important shorebird sites around Australia.
Table 1: Threats to significant shorebird sites in Australia.
Site Threat Significant species
Queensland Abbot Point • Approved coal port
development Supports at least 26 shorebird species, including 17 migratory shorebird species: Red-necked Stint, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Australian Painted Snipe (1.6% of global population)
Great Sandy Strait* • Residential developments • Recreational users
Port of Gladstone • Port expansion Eastern Curlew, Lesser Sand Plover, Bar-tailed Godwit, Whimbrel, Terek Sandpiper, Grey-tailed Tattler and Australian Pied Oystercatcher
Shoalwater Bay and Broad Sound, Great Barrier Reef Coastal Zone
• Large residential population - high recreational use, vehicle impacts.
development Supports 29 shorebird species including 21 migratory shorebird species: Curlew Sandpiper, Red-necked Stint, Double-banded Plover and Sharp-tailed Sandpiper.
Powling street wetland, Port Fairy
• Proposed residential development
Most important known site for Latham's Snipe in Australia
Western Port* • Proposed expansion of the Port of Hastings
* Classified as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar convention.
Often, the loss of individual sites is not perceived to be significant because it is assumed that there’s ‘plenty of habitat elsewhere’. However, the cumulative impacts of these threats, including threats operating within Australia, are having a large impact on many shorebird species.
Time to take action! BirdLife Australia is deeply concerned by the ongoing decline of Australia’s shorebirds. We are calling on the Australian Government to take action to protect these birds and their habitat by developing:
• A strong national wetlands policy that takes the cumulative impacts of multiple threats to our shorebirds into account.
• A strategy to engage our international partners in the protection of habitat important to the survival of our shorebirds.
• A new Wildlife Conservation Plan for Migratory Shorebirds that makes a strong commitment to the protection of a network of important shorebird habitat in Australia and throughout the East-Asian–Australasian Flyway, with a commitment to no net loss of important habitat. The current Plan has failed to meet its objectives (see Background for more detail).
Fortunately – and partly in response to BirdLife Australia and our supporters – the Federal Government released a new draft Wildlife Conservation Plan for Migratory Shorebirds (WCP) in August 2014.
The new plan offers significant improvements on the current version - with threat prioritisation, stronger objectives, and recognition of the need for more international cooperation. However, it has some major flaws:
• It does not commit Australia to no net loss of important habitat. This is unacceptable; it means that the Government will still allow important shorebird habit to be developed or degraded without adequate compensation (if and where this is even possible).
• It fails to take into account cumulative losses – i.e. the collective impacts of multiple threats to our shorebirds. We don’t even have a register of what is being lost.
• It ignores the urgent need for updated migratory population estimates and
identification of important sites. Decisions are not based on accurate information.
• It will not sufficiently increase international cooperation to protect migratory shorebird habitat. Existing international efforts have been inadequate in addressing the rapid destruction of critical staging areas like the Yellow Sea.
Unless these flaws are addressed, the WCP will not be effective at addressing the impact of Australia’s development on migratory shorebirds when they visit our shores. The WCP is open for public comment on the Department of the Environment website until 3 December 2014. BirdLife Australia will be making a formal submission to the Department of the Environment and the Federal Environment Minister with our feedback on how the WCP must be strengthened. We strongly encourage you to comment on the plan.
Background Information
Who are Australia’s shorebirds? Australia regularly supports around 54 species of shorebirds. Of these, 18 shorebird species spend their entire lives within Australia (resident species), although they may make substantial movements within Australia. A further 36 species make regular international movements to Australia from their breeding grounds. Thirty-five of these migratory shorebirds travel thousands of kilometres each year from their northern hemisphere breeding grounds, whereas one species, the Double-banded Plover, migrates in modest numbers from New Zealand in winter. A further 24 species have only been recorded in Australia as irregular rarities and are classified as ‘vagrants’.
Pacific Golden Plover Grey Plover Double-banded Plover Lesser Sand Plover Greater Sand Plover Oriental Plover Latham’s Snipe Pin-tailed Snipe* Swinhoe’s Snipe Black-tailed Godwit Bar-tailed Godwit Little Curlew Whimbrel Eastern Curlew Terek Sandpiper Common Sandpiper Grey-tailed Tattler Wandering Tattler Common Greenshank Marsh Sandpiper Common Redshank Wood Sandpiper Ruddy Turnstone Asian Dowitcher Red Knot Great Knot Sanderling Red-necked Stint Long-toed Stint Pectoral Sandpiper Sharp-tailed Sandpiper Curlew Sandpiper Broad-billed Sandpiper Ruff Red-necked Phalarope Oriental Pratincole *Australian Pratincole
South Island Pied Oystercatcher American Golden Plover Ringed Plover Little Ringed Plover* Kentish Plover Caspian Plover Grey-headed Lapwing Pheasant-tailed Jacana Hudsonian Godwit Eurasian Curlew Upland Sandpiper Green Sandpiper Spotted Redshank Nordmann’s Greenshank Lesser Yellowlegs Short-billed Dowitcher Little Stint* White-rumped Sandpiper Baird’s Sandpiper Dunlin Stilt Sandpiper Buff-breasted Sandpiper Wilson’s Phalarope
Grey Phalarope
*Some Australian Pratincoles migrate to islands north of Australia during the non-breeding season, while some remain year round.
Australia: an international leader in shorebird conservation?
Australia is a signatory or party to several international agreements that commit us to the protection of important shorebird habitat:
• Bilateral migratory bird agreements with Japan (JAMBA), China (CAMBA) and Korea (ROKAMBA)
• The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance • The Bonn Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals • The Convention on Biological Diversity.
We are failing to meet our obligations under these agreements. As shown in Table 1, a number of major developments are planned for sites classified as Ramsar wetlands. Migratory shorebirds are also protected as a matter of national environmental significance under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). This mandates the development and implementation of a Wildlife Conservation Plan to protect, conserve and manage listed migratory species and their habitats. Unfortunately, the current Wildlife Conservation Plan (from 2006) has failed to meet many of its objectives.
