NZ-AU collaboration on godwits: Schuckard, R; Melville, D.; Riegen, A; Driscoll, P; Driessen, J; Kidd, L 2020. Numbers of bar-tailed godwits (Limosa lapponica baueri) in New Zealand and Australia during the austral summer of 2019–2020. Notornis 67(4): 643–650. Image: @Phasmatid

Abstract: Bar-tailed godwits were counted throughout New Zealand and on the east coast of Australia during the 2019–2020 austral summer, in the first attempt to assess the total population of the subspecies baueri on the southern hemisphere non-breeding grounds.

Survey coverage in NZ was nationwide (158 sites); surveys in AU covered 314 sites between Great Sandy Strait in Sth Queensland, and the Gulf St Vincent in Sth Australia. Areas north of Great Sandy Strait were either partially counted (excluded from total) or were not visited.

The total number of godwits counted was 116,446. If allowance is made for an additional 10,000 birds expected to have been present in Nth Queensland (based on previous surveys), the total population of baueri in New Zealand and Australia would have been about 126,000.

This census is the most complete one undertaken to date and, in combination with the 2019 Alaskan survey, provides a reasonably firm baseline for a flyway-wide population assessment - which has been considered a conservation priority for many years.

None of this would have happened without the many volunteers and professionals who go through huge efforts to count shorebirds each season in NZ ( @miranda_trust), AU ( @BirdlifeOz's Shorebird Monitoring Program, QLD Wader Study Group) and many others. A huge thanks to all of you!