Bar-tailed godwit makes a 10,000km trip from its northern Arctic breeding grounds back to Adelaide

THIS little bird has certainly built up some frequent flyer miles, making a trip from Siberia to South Australia.

THIS little bird has certainly built up some frequent flyer miles but has decided there’s no place better than Adelaide to call home.

The bar-tailed godwit, known as AKK, has returned to Thompson Beach, near Dublin, after a 10,000km trip from its northern Arctic breeding grounds, and a quick stopover in China.

The migratory shorebird was banded at Thompson Beach in November 2012 by the Victorian Wader Studies group, as part of a monitoring program set up by the Natural Resources Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges and Birdlife Australia.

In April 2013, AKK was snapped by South Australian bird researcher and photographer Adrian Boyle at Nanpu, near Beijing.

Then late last month, Adelaide birdwatcher Peter Corcoran captured the bird’s return to Thompson Beach.

“I could see the bird was banded but it wasn’t until I’d gotten home and contacted the Wader group that I learnt the history of the bird,” Mr Corcoran said.

“It’s incredible to think the bird has returned to the same spot it was two years ago when it was banded … it’s absolutely fascinating.

“I adore birds; I love to learn about their migration and behaviour. This was no different.”

Godwits are known to undertake the longest non-stop flights of any bird, with one satellite-tracked bird from New Zealand making a non-stop flight of more than 11,000km in nine days.

Natural Resources Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Coast and Marine programs manager Tony Flaherty said AKK was one of thousands of migratory shorebirds that fly a mammoth journey from their northern breeding grounds in Mongolia, Siberia and Alaska.

“It’s remarkable that an individual bird has been so far around the world and come back to our shores,” he said.

“These birds make this amazing migration every year and they’re doing it in one trip that can take them up to nine days.

“There’s a local connection and the fact this bird has made the journey back here is amazing.”

He said there were more than 27,000 shorebirds from 18 species that regularly used the Gulf St Vincent as a summer holiday location.

This summer, Natural Resources Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges and the Victorian Wader Studies Group researchers are hoping to place a tiny satellite on a bar-tailed godwit to see how the birds use SA’s coast and plot their epic migration.

Local efforts towards shorebird and saltmarsh conservation have received a significant boost with the Samphire Coast Icon Project receiving funding from the Federal Government.

The State Government is also working on developing an international bird sanctuary in Adelaide’s north.

An Environment Department spokeswoman said until 2018, the department would be working on “various projects to turn this area into a safe haven for the visiting birds, as well as working to preserve and protect the surrounding coastal ecosystems”.