Record numbers of royal spoonbills on Estuary
April and May are peak times for royal spoonbill numbers on the Avon-Heathcote Estuary as birds which spent the breeding season in Otago or Marlborough disperse to the Garden City.
Until this year the largest number recorded on the Estuary was about 80. A count done on 20 April showed there were more than 100 there and six on Brooklands Lagoon. That’s about 10 per cent of the total New Zealand population.
The tall white bird with the black face and unusual bill, like many of our native birds, originally self-colonised from Australia and now breeds in several sites – mainly in Westland, Otago and Marlborough. They are present in Christchurch year-round but have not yet been known to nest locally.
Royal spoonbills feed in flocks, catching small fish such as flounder and yellow-eyed mullet. At high tide they roost in conspicuous groups around the shoreline, particularly at McCormacks Bay and in both the city and Kaiapoi wastewater oxidation ponds. |
