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Waterbird Breeding Colonies of the Top End of the Northern Territory

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Waterbird Breeding Colonies of the Top End of the Northern Territory 69 TECHNICAL 2000 REPORT WATERBIRD BREEDING COLONIES IN THE TOP END OF THE NORTHERN TERRITORY Ray Chatto Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory - 2 - 69 TECHNICAL 2000 REPORT WATERBIRD BREEDING COLONIES IN THE TOP END OF THE NORTHERN TERRITORY Ray Chatto Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory © Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory PO Box 496, Palmerston, NT, 0831, Australia ISBN 0724577745 This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the copyright ACT 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from the author. Request and inquiries concerning publication should be addressed to Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory, PO Box 496, Palmerston, NT 0831. Views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory. Cover photograph: Intermediate Egret Ardea intermedia, standing on nest in the East Alligator River colony in 1989. Photograph by G. Miles. ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This is the first report in a series that will document the location and status of selected faunal assemblages on the Northern Territory coastline, offshore islands and Top End floodplains. It addresses colonial waterbird breeding sites and includes species of egrets, herons, cormorants and ibises, and the Australian Pelican, Darter and Royal Spoonbill. Little information existed on the location and status of waterbird breeding colonies in the Top End (north of latitude 16 o 35'S) of the Northern Territory prior to 1990. Information gathered during aerial and ground surveys primarily between 1990 and 1999 have subsequently shown that the coast and major floodplains of the Top End have nationally and globally significant numbers of colonial nesting waterbirds, particularly Intermediate, Great, Little and Cattle Egrets. Seventy-six colonies, confirmed active during the survey period, are here documented. The majority of these colonies were located during surveys by the author, while a few were listed from evidence provided by reliable informants during the survey period. Colonies were distributed around most of the coast and larger coastal floodplains, extending inland for no further than about 40 kilometres. The most important areas for colonial waterbird breeding were the floodplains between the Moyle and Finniss Rivers and between the Adelaide River and Murgenella Creek. The least important areas were the Tiwi Islands, Cobourg Peninsular, Groote Eylandt and most of the northern part of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Apart from two small colonies on Low Rock and Haul Round Island, no islands supported colonial waterbird breeding (their importance was for seabird breeding and will be discussed in a subsequent report). The vast majority of the colonies were located on either Aboriginal land or pastoral leasehold land. Only 5% of colonies occurred on conservation reserves. This is an issue in need of consideration in the future. Stands of mangrove or paperbark trees were strongly preferred as breeding sites, with some species of waterbird preferring one or the other for nesting sites, while others were found breeding equally in both types. Fifteen species of waterbird breed at these sites, with individual sites having between 1 and 11 species. Colony sizes varied from the low tens to 15000+ adults. As well as having nationally significant numbers of colonies and numbers of birds within them, Top End colonies are important because most are active every year, unlike many colonies in southern Australia. Breeding begins as early as November when Cattle Egrets commence nesting, and continues through to October when the later-breeding Darter, Australian White Ibis and Royal Spoonbill are finishing. The longest duration of any single colony was from November to August. A further 52 colonies, which are not discussed in the main body of the report, have been listed as confirmed breeding colonies in the past, or possible breeding colonies at present. These mostly include colonies that were located from the air but require further investigation for confirmation, and sites appearing in historical records (ie prior to 1990) that may no longer be used, or were unable to be located from the information available. All confirmed colonies are individually detailed in Appendix B and possible colonies in Appendix C. The fauna of the Top End of the Northern Territory is in a very unique position. Not only is there an immense amount of habitat which holds large populations of many species, but most of the area is very remote and has not been subject to many of the pressures associated with large human populations. Although this is likely to remain the case for at least the short term, it is equally likely that the pressures of human expansion within Australia will see some of this area targeted for development at some stage in the more distant future. It is for this eventuality that we must be prepared. We must ensure the security of the more significant of these colonies before problems arise. iii iv CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY III LIST OF FIGURES VII LIST OF TABLES VIII LIST OF PLATES VIII ACKNOWLEDGMENTS IX BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES 1 STUDY AREA AND ENVIRONMENT 2 SPECIES SELECTED 5 METHODS 6 General summary 6 Survey types 7 Geographic coverage 7 Temporal coverage 7 Quality of numerical estimates 9 Separation of species in surveys 10 THE SITES 11 THE COLONIES 12 Geographic distribution 12 Numbers 12 Seasonality 14 THE SPECIES 19 Top End breeders 22 Intermediate Egret 22 Great Egret 26 Little Egret 29 Cattle Egret 32 Little Pied Cormorant 35 Little Black Cormorant 38 Pied Cormorant 41 Darter 44 Pied Heron 47 Nankeen Night Heron 50 Australian White Ibis 53 Glossy Ibis 56 Straw-Necked Ibis 58 Royal Spoonbill 59 Australian Pelican 62 Colonial breeding waterbirds that do not nest colonially in the Top End 64 Great Cormorant 64 Eurasian Coot 64 Purple Swamphen 64 Black-Winged Stilt 64 Red-Necked Avocet, Gull-Billed Tern And Whiskered Tern 65 FUTURE MANAGEMENT 66 REFERENCES 67 v PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS 68 APPENDIX A. Summary tables of confirmed colonies 70 APPENDIX B Individual colony breakdown for confirmed colonies (W001-W076). 95 APPENDIX C Individual colony breakdown for possible and/or historic colonies (W901-W956) 135 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Major wetlands and rivers in the Top End of the Northern Territory......................................3 Figure 2. Average annual rainfall in the Northern Territory (supplied by the Bureau of Meterology, Darwin) ...............................................................................................................4 Figure 3. Approximate area covered by these surveys............................................................................8 Figure 4. Locations of colonies by total numbers of birds of all species combined per colony.............13 Figure 5. Total number of birds (of all species) per colony with number of colonies. .........................14 Figure 6. Numbers of species per colonies with number of colonies....................................................19 Figure 7. Location of colonies by number of species per colony..........................................................21 Figure 8. Location and size of colonies containing Intermediate Egrets. .............................................25 Figure 9. Location and size of colonies containing Great Egret. ..........................................................28 Figure 10. Location and size of colonies containing Little Egrets........................................................31 Figure 11. Location and size of colonies containing Cattle Egret.........................................................34 Figure 12. Location and size of colonies containing Little Pied Cormorant.........................................37 Figure 13. Location and size of colonies containing Little Black Cormorant.......................................40 Figure 14. Location and size of colonies containing Pied Cormorant. ................................................43 Figure 15. Location and size of colonies containing Darter. ................................................................46 Figure 16. Location and size of colonies containing Pied Heron..........................................................49 Figure 17. Location and size of colonies containing Nankeen Night Heron.........................................52 Figure 18. Location and size of colonies containing Australian White Ibis. ........................................55 Figure 19. Location and size of colonies containing Glossy Ibis..........................................................57 Figure 20. Location and size of colonies containing Royal Spoonbill..................................................61 Figure 21. Location and size of colonies containing Australian Pelican. .............................................63 Figure B1. Location of colonies by colony number – confirmed colonies ...........................................98 Figure C1. Location of colonies by colony number – possible and/or historic colony.......................138 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Species list................................................................................................................................ 5 Table 2. Number of survey days for each year...................................................................................... 6 Table 3. Habitats in which nests were built.........................................................................................
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