Researchers tracking endangered Australian painted-snipe for first time after sighting at Balranald
/ By Conor BurkeIn a major breakthrough for Australian ornithology, researchers have placed a tracker on the "holy grail" of endangered birds — the Australian painted-snipe — for the first time.
Ecologist and painted-snipe aficionado Matt Herring hopes it will shed new light on the "mythical, ghost-like" bird.
This month the rare bird was spotted in New South Wales for the first time this season, one of only a handful of sightings in 2023.
Dr Herring said there were only about 340 of the birds left — and they were so elusive, nobody knew what they sounded like or anything about their migratory behaviour.
Sleep deprived and caked in mud
The most recent sighting happened in the last few days near Balranald in the NSW Riverina, after the researchers received a tip-off from a landowner that had seen multiple snipe in wetlands on his property.
"We've had this incredible site up our sleeves for two weeks, keeping it quiet, not wanting to attract any attention to this very special area," Dr Herring said.
"There have been up to 25 Australian painted-snipe at this site."
The team had no idea how to catch the bird, so Dr Herring and his team camped out in the muck for a few "sleep deprived" days, before they spotted and tagged a bird — now christened Gloria — on Sunday.
"Gloria is just going to give us such an insight into the secret life of a painted-snipe," Dr Herring said.
The team caught Gloria using mist nets — a fine mesh net with loose flaps to catch a bird in flight — and they were able to place a small solar-powered transmitter on its back.
"It only takes up about 2 or 3 per cent of her body weight," Dr Herring said.
"But it was just a surreal moment to have this bird … pull its wings out and the patterning is just outstanding — it looks like an award-winning artwork."
A secret migration
The development will help ecologists answer two glaring questions they have about the bird.
Firstly, their mating call — or "advertisement call", as Dr Herring puts it — which is still a mystery.
But more importantly, scientists will find out where they migrate to.
Dr Herring said almost all of the sightings in south-eastern Australia were made during spring and summer, and then the snipe vanished.
"For all we know, she might take us to North Queensland, she might take us to her nest, she might take us to drought refuges or unknown strongholds," Dr Herring said.
"We're going to learn so much through this."
'Where there's one, there's some'
Gloria's tagging is the culmination of eight years of work for Dr Herring.
He said he had cramps in his fingers from refreshing the tracker page so much in the past 24 hours.
Dr Herring raised money to track the birds through crowdfunding, and his team hope they can find more birds in the coming months.
"Where there's one, there's some and the first is always the hardest," he said.
"It's just thrilling and breathtaking to experience, it's still sinking in."