6 facts about the birds on our beaches

While you may immediately think of hot chip-stealing silver gulls, our beaches are important habitats for a range of migratory birds and other seabirds.

Here’s 6 fun facts about these curious creatures and the place they call home.

1. Beaches are important habitats for birds

When you think of ‘biodiversity’ and ‘habitat’, you might imagine a lush rainforest full of unique plants and animals.

But did you know that beaches are biodiversity-rich habitats too?

Beaches are fed by the sea, each tide washing in seaweed, seagrass and tiny micro-organisms. You can find an entire ecosystem embedded in the wet sand.

Dominating the food chain in these incredible ecosystems – are birds!

You may even see one of our threatened species, the little tern and fairy tern, nesting in colonies on the sand close to where they can fish and defend their chicks.

So next time you’re at the beach, take in the incredible biodiversity around you and grab a bird guide if you’d like to try and identify what you’re seeing!

Fun fact: Have you ever gone for a walk on the beach and spotted a bird dragging its wing along the sand? This is often mistaken as a sign of injury or distress, but it’s actually a clever strategy designed to capture your attention and distract you from their tiny, flightless chicks!

2. Migratory birds can fly to the moon (figuratively)

Long haul flights are draining even when you’ve got extra legroom and an edible meal. Imagine if you had to flap your wings and navigate severe weather all the way to your next Euro-holiday.

Migratory shorebirds do all this, only to touch down in their destination and immediately start raising a family. To these birds, the entire globe is their home.

The shorebirds in our East Asian-Australasian ‘flyway’ begin their lives in the northern hemisphere, where they start using their new legs and, within weeks, take flight towards warmer weather and good food.

These newly-hatched birds make the mammoth journey with no prior experience and manage to find the best feeding sites to refuel and spend the Austral summer.

It seriously feels like some kind of magic and is the subject of much research.

In fact, some of the larger birds, like bar-tailed godwits, have sometimes been fitted with transmitters (light enough not to weigh them down).

Thanks to these transmitters, these birds have been observed setting all kinds of records for single distance flights, from the famous ‘E7’ in 2007 that flew over 11,600 km from Alaska to New Zealand in one go, to the next record setter, ‘4BBRW’ which flew from Alaska to NSW in a non-stop 13,000 km flight!

So, in their lifetime, a godwit flies the distance from the Earth to the Moon!

Why do they do it? They’re smart enough to maximise use of the best habitats the world has to offer.

3. Beach-nesting birds are masters of camouflage

Beach-nesting birds are the ultimate masters of camouflage.

Most of these birds have combinations of black, white and grey plumage, which you might think would stand out on a beach.

However, once the bird sits down, they hide most of their white belly, and their black or grey plumage becomes completely lost among the shells, seaweed and driftwood scattered along the sand.

You could walk past and not even realise they’re there!

Hooded plovers and red-capped plovers are some of the best camouflage masters out there and use these skills to protect their chicks.

If you approach their nest on the beach they will quietly sneak away, run down in front of you and ‘lead’ you along the water’s edge and out of the vicinity of their precious cargo. When you’re far enough away they will run back to the nest or chicks to care for them.

Why do they leave their eggs or chicks to protect them you might ask? It’s a clever strategy, designed to protect them from predators. When the adult is near their chicks, it’s much easier for a predator to spot them, but if they leave the nest, the eggs blend in perfectly with the sand.

Researchers using remote cameras to learn more about these nests often capture images of predators searching and coming up empty!

Camouflage has its strengths for protection against their natural threats, but in a modern world with so many people now using our beaches, we need a little help to know where to avoid stepping.

This also applies when driving on beaches – imagine how challenging it would be to avoid the nests then!

So, keep an eye out for signage and fencing around protected breeding zones and be mindful in more regional areas.

4. The secret lives of tern parents

We all remember our parents telling us to chew our food!

Well, that isn’t the case for tern chicks. Instead, chicks receive fish straight from their parent’s bill which they then proceed to swallow whole…head-first!

The size of the fish increases as the chick grows but sometimes the parent misjudges the size resulting in the chick eagerly trying to swallow something bigger than themselves! But the fish will end up on the sand and the parent sent back out to sea to try again.

Terns are also clever when leaving their chicks to go fishing and find food. They know that one parent on its own will have a hard time protecting the chicks. So not only do they nest in a colony for safety, but they also ‘creche’ their chicks, herding them together into clusters and having a group ‘babysit’ them!

5. Hooded plovers are little Aussie battlers

If there’s a bird’s lifestyle to envy – it’s the hooded plover.

They live on the beach, spend hours watching the waves roll in, feast on amphipods (the equivalent of dining on lobster), and live to a ripe old age with few predators to fear.

Despite this, they’re one of the most threatened birds in eastern Australia. This is because living on the beach means you also have to raise your young there and it’s not an easy place for fragile eggs and chicks to survive.

The eggs are the size of 20 cent coins and they’re laid directly on the sand where they blend in perfectly.

However, because the sand can get hotter than 70 degrees in summer, those eggs need to have their parents’ belly on them keeping them at the right temperature.

Very few eggs hatch because they face a suite of threats, including from high tides washing them out and nests being crushed by people walking across dunes.

The sad thing is that the parents think they are protecting the eggs by coming off the nest when people or predators get too close – they hope camouflage will keep the nest safe – but while this works for natural predators, people need to know where the eggs are to avoid stepping (or driving) on them.

Once they hatch, the chicks are a lot harder to protect because they need to get down to the shore’s edge to find food. They can’t yet fly and instead need to try and run away if people, dogs or cars approach, which can mean they get lost or hide somewhere for hours on end.

Life is harsh for these chicks and only about 10% survive. This is why they’re such a threatened species.

But it’s not all doom and gloom, South Australians are genuinely helping. By keeping your dog on a leash and following the directions of fences and signs – you’re playing an important role in protecting these little Aussie battlers.

6. Terns are the masters of romance

How would you feel if your prospective partner wiped your favourite food all over you? Well for the fairy tern this type of behaviour is appealing. Fish-wiping is used by male fairy terns during the breeding season to try and ‘WOW’ the ladies.

But that’s not all, the male fairy tern must prove he has the right moves. He needs to strut around his date while holding the fish he has brought for her crosswise (yes, the direction matters!) in his bill. If all goes well, he will then feed her the fish and mating will occur.

Loved this one? We think you'll like the beachgoer's guide to hooded plover nesting season.