The short-tailed shearwater
Some of them do get slightly off track and can end up up the Derwent River on the Tasman Bridge, as we find every year. But mostly they get all the way back to Alaska to go and feed up, and then they come back the following year.
They are mutton birds and they are also harvested for food here. There are other species that are called mutton birds in different parts of the world, but in Tasmania, short-tailed shearwaters are mutton birds.
They pair up with their partner, they dig a burrow, and then they lay their eggs and rear their young. They fly out every morning just before dawn usually, out to sea to feed for the day. They fly back in at dusk and they leave their youngsters in their burrows all through the day.
We've been starting to see more tropical species coming in like wedge-tailed shearwaters in summer. There's a lot of research going on in various institutions about what happens to seabirds with climate change, warming waters, reductions in food availability.
For short-tailed shearwaters in particular avian flu in the northern hemisphere is something we're watching out for here.
Karen Dick
Some of them do get slightly off track and can end up up the Derwent River on the Tasman Bridge, as we find every year. But mostly they get all the way back to Alaska to go and feed up, and then they come back the following year.
They are mutton birds and they are also harvested for food here. There are other species that are called mutton birds in different parts of the world, but in Tasmania, short-tailed shearwaters are mutton birds.
They pair up with their partner, they dig a burrow, and then they lay their eggs and rear their young. They fly out every morning just before dawn usually, out to sea to feed for the day. They fly back in at dusk and they leave their youngsters in their burrows all through the day.
We've been starting to see more tropical species coming in like wedge-tailed shearwaters in summer. There's a lot of research going on in various institutions about what happens to seabirds with climate change, warming waters, reductions in food availability.
For short-tailed shearwaters in particular avian flu in the northern hemisphere is something we're watching out for here.
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A tiny transhemispheric migrant
Tasmania is the stronghold for the short-tailed shearwater, writes bird ecologist Dr Eric Woehler. But they are also a remarkable transhemispheric migrant, flying to Antarctica in two days to find food for their chicks, before travelling north to Japan, Russia and Alaska for the northern summer. Then, they'll do it all again.
Storm petrel power
My very favourite bird in the whole world is is a tiny storm petrel called a grey-backed storm petrel which is roughly the size of the palm of your hand. I'm amazed that a bird that small can survive out there in conditions that would kill us... it's just amazing, says BirdLife Tasmania's Karen Dick.
The amazing migration
Dr Eric Woehler says he doesn’t need to exaggerate what these tiny migratory bird species can do - “I can simply tell people the bird that sits in the cup of your hand will fly farther than the distance between the earth and the moon over its lifetime."
Albatross: a life at sea
Karen Dick's love of seabirds goes back a long way to her university days. She is captivated by the big pelagics, who can live to a great age and spend most of their lives far out at sea. But these majestic creatures are also facing challenges.
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