Map showing oystercatcher movement

Kaikoura oystercatcher enjoyed holiday in Golden Bay

This Black oystercatcher photographed at Kaikoura over the summer (2011) is three years old (banded in 2008 as a chick). In 2009 it spent it's spring, as an immature bird, at Collingwood- Golden Bay, a distance of some 350 kilometres away. Now as an adult the bird has returned to Kaikoura Peninsula, where it was banded by researcher Lindsay Rowe.
Colour banding gives detailed insights into birds' movements and shows just how inter-connected our estuaries and coastal environments are for shorebird populations.


(gy/or K12081banded KK Pen as Pull 6 Dec 2008 This bird had been on holiday at Collingwood in spring 2009)

Caspian terns- long lived wanders

Bird banding really gives an insight into the travels and age of birds around NZ. This Caspian tern sighted at the Avon-Heathcote estuary, Christchurch, was banded 19 years prior at the Invercargill estuary. Not only are many of our birds long-lived but they require a nation-wide network of estuaries over their lives. Such information has important implications for their conservation.

As a footnote Caspian tern have been recorded as reaching 30 years of age in Europe.

Long distance movement of black-billed gull

E-204136, metal on the left banded as a chick in 2004 at Bayswater on the Aparima River , Southland recovered at South Bay Kaikoura- June 2010.

Interesting to see more Southland gulls being found at Kaikoura.