Coastal Birds of the Barwon Heads Region / Double-banded Plovers & Bar-tailed Godwits

 
Double-banded Plovers & Bar-tailed Goodwits

Charadrius bicinctus - Double-banded Plover
A migrant from New Zealand where it breeds in summer, it is most often seen along the ocean and estuarine beaches between the months of March and September. The plovers feed on invertebrates found on the sand and in the surface of the estuarine silt. On the ocean beaches, stranded seaweed provides them shelter from the winter wind. On the estuary the birds rest among the low shoreline vegetation when not feeding. Most birds we see lack the bright chest bands of the breeding birds being in immature or eclipse plumage.

Luimosa haemastica - Bar-tailed Godwit
One of the northern hemisphere migrants, godwits are most commonly seen on local wetlands between the months of September and March. During winter, small members of first-year birds remain when the breeding adults are in far north Eurasia at their nesting areas. Most of the birds we see are in eclipse, or non-breeding, plumage just before they begin their northern migration, a few attain their rich orange-red colouring of the breeding season. Godwits feed on invertebrates including sandworms and crustaceans that they probe for with their long, narrow, slightly up-curved beak.