Trends in population dynamics of migratory shorebirds in Australia
Introduction
Many migratory shorebird populations continue to decline worldwide, reflecting compounding pressures across their breeding, staging, and non‑breeding grounds. However, in recent years, some species have shown more stable population sizes. Understanding how survival varies through time is essential for diagnosing the drivers of these declines and recently observed stability for some species. Such information can then aid in identifying where conservation interventions can be most effective.
This site presents a suite of species‑level survival analyses based on long‑term banding and resighting data Using Cormack-Jolly-Seber models, we estimate temporal trends of population dynamics across 12 different shorebird species for which enough data has been collected in Australia.
This overview is generated using capture and resighting data from the VWSG, AWSG, QWSG, and the Global Flyway Network, curated in BirdMark. For species where sufficient data is available, minimal age overviews and variations in juvenile percentages over the years are calculated and provided.
Some notes to keep in mind when reviewing the data:
data include all birds originally banded as adults, immatures or juveniles. An immature bird is one that has lost its juvenile plumage (within first year of life), but is still yet to make its first northward migration.
a year/season for each bird runs from August 1- July 31 the next year.
it presents conservative age overviews (e.g. a bird aged 2+ upon banding was assumed to be 2 years of age).
the data has been rather conservatively filtered for obvious errors in observations.
Please note, this overview page and following species profiles are not set up viewing on mobile devices.
Species Index
Click on the images below to select your species, use the back button in each species profile to get back to this index file. Icons on the upper right of each image indicate EPBC listing - where unlisted in the EPBC, the species is marked as ‘Least Concern’ (LC). Other listings include Vulnerable (VU), Endangered (EN) and Critically Endangered (CR).
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Funding
Funding for this project was provided by the National Environmental Science Program, and forms part of NESP Project 4.17: Migratory shorebird populations: research for management and recovery.
Co-funding was provided by Deakin Marine Research and Innovation Centre.
Acknowledgements
On behalf of the BirdMark team, we would like to acknowledge the following:
- Volunteers of the Australasian Wader Study Group (AWSG; up to 2000 between 1976–2024), Queensland Wader Study Group (QWSG; approximately 80 between 2006–2024), and Victorian Wader Study Group (VWSG; approximately 650 between 1976–2024) participating in the banding of birds.
- More than 7000 observers that have been reporting flag sightings in BirdMark.
- The Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme (ABBBS) for the provision of the metal bands used in these studies.
Get in contact
To contact us about data, troubleshooting or to report bug fixes, please email any of the following:
- For survival analysis queries and bug reports:
- Tobias Ross (t.ross@deakin.edu.au)
- For data curation and BirdMark admin:
- Marcel Klaassen (marcel.klaassen@deakin.edu.au)
- For BirdMark admin and bug reports:
- Aaron Spence (aaron.spence@deakin.edu.au)
Produced in collaboration with: AWSG • QWSG •
VWSG • Global Flyway Network • Deakin University. Last updated:
April, 2026