Hooded Plover Project

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Photo © Frank O'Connor.  Hooded Plovers at Flinders Bay near Augusta

Birds Australia Western Australia has begun a management program to increase numbers of the rare Hooded Plover, by minimising the human induced threatening processes that appear to restrict the size of its population.  Strategies are to be found in the Hooded Plover Management Plan for Western Australia by Julie Raines. This management plan was developed in conjunction with the Department of Conservation and Land Management, relevant local government authorities, local conservation and land care groups, Birds Australia members and the wider interested community:

1. establish and run an 'on ground' colour banding and monitoring project in the Yalgorup Lakes Wetlands System to determine exactly how the birds use the system and enable management actions to be spatially and temporally fine tuned;
2. train the local community to assist with this project; process data meaningfully and have more meaningful input into resource management;
3. report the finding and implications to other Hooded Plover management groups both in Western Australia and the Eastern States;
4. increase community awareness of this rare bird and how to protect it, including the provision of signage an information brochures in the Peel Harvey Catchment;
5. conduct yearly surveys that cover coastal beaches and coastal lakes from Esperance to Shark Bay and the extensive inland salt lakes right out to Kalgoorlie.

Description of the Hooded Plover

The rare Hooded Plover is an attractive wader, which is endemic to Australia. Only 5000 birds are left in the world. Most of these remaining birds are in southern Western Australia.  In the Eastern States the species' range has contracted and it has become locally extinct in some areas. We have an international responsibility to protect the species.

Hooded Plovers live on ocean beaches and on coastal and inland salt lakes. They are mainly found on the coast during the dry season, but some birds move inland during the wet season. They feed on invertebrates such as worms, shellfish, crustaceans, insects and seeds.  In Western Australia they are normally found in small numbers of less than 10 birds, usually with only one to three birds in a group. Occasionally hundreds may be found spread over a single wetland. Hooded Plovers are particularly vulnerable in the first stages of their lives. They take approximately four weeks to hatch and are flightless for five to six weeks after that. The eggs and flightless chicks can easily be hunted and eaten by foxes, dogs and cats. Being highly camouflaged they are also accidentally crushed by pedestrians, four-wheel drive vehicles and trail bikes.

The adults are only 19-23 cm long. Adults have a distinctive red bill with a black tip. Red eye ring. Black head; white collar. Back pale grey-brown. Lower neck, side of breast black. Broad white wing bar in flight.

For more information, contact: Marcus Singor (Chairperson) Phone (08) 9362 2742 msingor@iprimus.com.au

Drawing © Judy Blyth.