Raising funds to protect beach-nesting birds

Twitchathon 2024 is brought to you by BIGnet, A Loose Affiliation of NSW & ACT Birdwatching Clubs and Organisations

This year we are raising funds for The Eureka-prize winning sensory conservation team at the University of Sydney to help fund research into new sensory tools to protect beach-nesting birds from introduced predators, such as foxes, using the cutting-edge technology of olfactory misinformation.

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Read more about Dr Catherine Price and her team's recent success, winning the 2024 Eureka Prize for Environmental Research:

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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/sep/04/eureka-australian-science-prize-endangered-species-odours

https://www.smh.com.au/national/mice-follow-their-noses-to-stop-them-damaging-crops-farmers-are-turning-to-smell-20240904-p5k7qe.html

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Introduced predators, such as foxes, rats and cats, threaten beach-nesting birds, hunting both the eggs and chicks of threatened species such as Pied and Sooty Oystercatchers, Beach Stone-curlews, Hooded Plovers and Little Terns. A single predator can wipe out entire nesting colonies in a single night or two. Current tools such as fox control and fencing are often not as effective as they need to be to protect nesting birds and chicks, and new tools are urgently needed in Australia and globally. 

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Researchers have demonstrated that ‘hiding’ birds from predators using smell can reduce egg predation by up to 70%. By targeting the senses that predators use to find nests, we can now exploit ‘sensory misinformation’ using odour to trick predators but not interfere with the birds themselves. Developing these new techniques so that shorebird wardens, community groups and land managers can use them could be a game changer for protecting our shorebirds. As well as smell, we also need to know if sound cues betray the location of nestlings and fledglings so that we can expand the effectiveness of these sensory tactics.

The money raised from this year’s Twitchathon will help develop new techniques to protect nesting shorebirds. It will directly support research investigating how predators might find nesting colonies using the sounds of calling adults and chicks. And then whether sound (as well as smell) makes chicks vulnerable. Crucially, this information and the technology developed to test these questions, will underpin new approaches for protecting our shorebirds from a range of predators wherever they nest. 

Researchers will accompany bird banders and shorebird wardens in the Shoalhaven and on the MidNorth Coast to record the soundscapes of nesting colonies that predators may use as a cue. 

These sounds (and others) will then be used in experimental tests using a range of mammalian nest predators, from black rats to foxes and cats. These experiments will take place in coastal areas of NSW from the MidNorth Coast down to Shoalhaven. Importantly, we hope that the research will result in new techniques that can be used to protect a range of threatened bird species from predators.

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If you'd like to know more about Dr Catherine Price and her research team, please see her researcher profile: https://www.sydney.edu.au/science/about/our-people/academic-staff/catherine-price.html