Friday, 6 January 2023
If you’re heading to the beach this summer, you might be sharing the shore with our beach-nesting birds and their chicks.
Over spring and summer, some shorebirds – like Hooded Plovers, Oystercatchers and Beach Stone-curlews – lay their eggs directly on the exposed sand of our ocean beaches. Once they hatch, these chicks roam the beach while learning to feed and fly. While their parents are always close by, they can be hard to spot since their plumage is well-camouflaged to their coastal habitat.
Without realising, we can have a major impact on the breeding success of beach-nesting birds.
If you’re lucky enough to find nesting shorebirds or chicks on the beach this summer, please keep a safe distance and keep any dogs on a leash to give our beach-nesting birds the best chance of survival.
Follow these 6 simple steps to become a bird-friendly beachgoer this summer.
And if you’d like to volunteer with our Beach-nesting Birds team, please visit our Beach-nesting Birds volunteer hub.
Five Australian shorebirds, and many species of seabirds, rely on coastal habitats for nesting. Loss of coastal habitats and recreational pressures are taking a devastating toll.
The Australian Shorebird Monitoring Project provides vital information on shorebird declines in Australia and the factors that may cause them. The database comprises the most complete shorebird count data available in Australia and helps to uncover significant population changes over the long term.
Small terns depend on both the marine and coastal terrestrial environment, foraging out at sea and roosting and nesting on nearby shores. Our smallest terns, the Little and Fairy Terns, are both vulnerable to extinction.
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