ReefBlitz 2015 Rowes Bay Common Bird Species
This is a guide to the common bird species found in Rowes Bay, QLD, compiled from the Atlas of Living Australia for ReefBlitz 2015.
Bar-tailed Godwit
The Bar-tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponica) is a large wader in the family Scolopacidae, which breeds on Arctic coasts and tundra mainly in the Old World, and winters on coasts in temperate and tropical regions of the Old World. Its migration is the longest known non-stop flight of any bird and also the longest journey without pausing to feed by any animal.
Black-bellied Plover
The Grey Plover (Pluvialis squatarola), known as the Black-bellied Plover in North America, is a medium-sized plover breeding in arctic regions. It is a long-distance migrant, with a nearly worldwide coastal distribution when not breeding.
Black-fronted Dotterel
The Black-fronted Dotterel (Elseyornis melanops) is a small, slender plover, widespread throughout most of Australia, to which it is native and New Zealand, where it self-introduced in the 1950s. It is common in freshwater wetlands, around the edges of lakes and billabongs, and in shallow, temporary claypan pools. It is also found occupying saline mudflats and estuaries, but ...more ↓
Black Noddy
The black noddy or white-capped noddy (Anous minutus) is a seabird from the tern family. It is a medium-sized bird with black plumage and a white cap. It resembles the closely related brown or common noddy (A. stolidus), but is smaller with darker plumage, a whiter cap, a longer, straighter beak and shorter tail. It was at one time, and sometimes still is, thought ...more ↓
Bridled Tern
The Bridled Tern (Onychoprion anaethetus, formerly Sterna anaethetus - see Bridge et al., 2005) is a seabird of the tern family Sternidae. It is a bird of the tropical oceans.
Red-Capped Plover
Charadrius is a genus of plovers, a group of wading birds. They are found throughout the world.
Caspian Tern
The Caspian Tern (Hydroprogne caspia, formerly Sterna caspia;syn. Hydroprogne tschegrava, Helopus caspius) is a species of tern, with a subcosmopolitan but scattered distribution. Despite its extensive range, it is monotypic of its genus, and has no subspecies accepted either. In New Zealand it is also known by the Maori name Taranui.
Common Sandpiper
The Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) is a small Palearctic wader. This bird and its American sister species, the Spotted Sandpiper (A. macularia), make up the genus Actitis. They are parapatric and replace each other geographically; stray birds of either species may settle down with breeders of the other and hybridize. Hybridization has also been reported ...more ↓
Common Tern
Sterna is a genus of terns in the bird family Sternidae. It used to encompass most "white" terns indiscriminately, but mtDNA sequence comparisons have recently determined that this arrangement is paraphyletic (Bridge et al., 2005). It is now restricted to the typical large white terns occurring near-globally in coastal regions.
Crested Tern
The Greater Crested Tern (Thalasseus bergii), also called Crested Tern or Swift Tern, is a seabird in the tern family which nests in dense colonies on coastlines and islands in the tropical and subtropical Old World. Its five subspecies breed in the area from South Africa around the Indian Ocean to the central Pacific and Australia, all populations dispersing ...more ↓
Grey-Tailed Tattler
The tattlers are the two very similar bird species in the shorebird genus Tringa. They formerly had their own genus, Heteroscelus. The old genus name means "different leg" in Greek, referring to the leg scales that differentiate the tattlers from their close relatives, the shanks.
Gull-billed Tern
The Gull-billed Tern (Gelochelidon nilotica) formerly Sterna nilotica (Bridge et al., 2005), is a seabird of the tern family Sternidae. It is now considered to be in its own genus.
Little Tern
The Little Tern (Sternula albifrons or Sterna albifrons) is a seabird of the tern family Sternidae. It was formerly placed into the genus Sterna, which now is restricted to the large white terns. The former North American (S. a. antillarum) and Red Sea S. a. saundersi subspecies are now considered to be separate species, the Least Tern (Sternula ...more ↓
Pied Oystercatcher
The Pied Oystercatcher (Haematopus longirostris) is a species of oystercatcher. It is a wading bird native to Australia and commonly found on its coastline. The similar South Island Pied Oystercatcher (H. finschi) occurs in New Zealand.
Sharp-Tailed Sandpiper
The calidrids or typical waders are a group of Arctic-breeding, strongly migratory wading birds. These birds form huge mixed flocks on coasts and estuaries in winter. They are the typical "sandpipers", small to medium-sized, long-winged and relatively short-billed.
Silver Gull
The Silver Gull (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae) also known simply as "seagull" in Australia, is the most common gull seen in Australia. It has been found throughout the continent, but particularly at or near coastal areas. The South African Hartlaub's Gull (C. hartlaubii) and the New Zealand Red-billed Gull (C. scopulinus) were formerly sometimes considered to be ...more ↓
Sooty Oystercatcher
The Sooty Oystercatcher (Haematopus fuliginosus) is a species of oystercatcher. It is a wading bird endemic to Australia and commonly found on its coastline. It prefers rocky coastlines, but will occasionally live in estuaries. All of its feathers are black. It has a red eye, eye ring and bill, and pink legs.
Bush-Stone Curlew
Burhinus is a genus of bird in the Burhinidae family. It contains the following species:
Beach Thick-knee
The Beach Stone-curlew (Esacus magnirostris) also known as Beach Thick-knee is a large, ground-dwelling bird that occurs in Australasia, the islands of South-east Asia. At 55 cm (22 in) and 1 kg (2.2 lbs), it is one of the world's largest shorebirds.
Black-winged Stilt
The black-winged stilt, common stilt, or pied stilt (Himantopus himantopus) is a widely distributed very long-legged wader in the avocet and stilt family (Recurvirostridae). Opinions differ as to whether the birds treated under the scientific name H. himantopus ought to be treated as a single species and if not, how many species to recognize. The scientific ...more ↓
Eastern Curlew
The curlews /ˈkɜrljuːz/, genus Numenius, are a group of eight species of birds, characterised by long, slender, downcurved bills and mottled brown plumage. They are one of the most ancient lineages of scolopacid waders, together with the godwits which look similar but have straight bills. In Europe "curlew" usually refers to one species, the Eurasian Curlew Numenius ...more ↓
