Grey plover leaves Adelaide and flies more than 7000km in one long-haul flight to rest in Taiwan

FLYING more than 7000km at once is usually reserved for objects with bigger wings, but this little bird has made it all the way from Adelaide to Taiwan in one long-haul flight.

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A NON-STOP flight of more than 7000km from Adelaide to Taiwan has this little bird rivalling long-haul jets, and it’s now enjoying a brief stop-over before setting off again for a mystery destination.

The tagged grey plover, codenamed CYA, left Thompson Beach on Adelaide’s northern coast on March 14, and flew 7340km in seven days to end up near the Beigang River, north of the Dongshi township in Taiwan.

The Grey Plover, photographed at Thompson Beach in January 2016, with the aerial of the satellite transmitter visible, has flown more than 7000km to a beach in Taiwan. Picture: Peter Owen.

On the way, it flew over Australia’s central deserts and then to the east of Kununurra in Western Australia, before heading out of the country over the Timor, Banda and Molucca seas near Indonesia. Then came the Philippines islands of Mindanao, Samar, and Catanduanes, before coming to rest in Taiwan.

Latest data from a satellite tracking system shows CYA is now taking another break on the Jiangsu coast near the Yellow Sea, about 180km north of Shanghai, and likely headed towards northern hemisphere breeding grounds yet to be found by scientists searching for it.

The grey plover was among more than 27,000 birds from 18 species to call the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary – stretching 60km from the Barker Inlet to Parham – home over the summer.

Environment Minister Ian Hunter said the sanctuary would ensure the protection of critical habitat for shorebirds that spend their summers in Adelaide.

“(It) is one of the world’s key feeding and roosting sites for more than 10 million migratory birds, including grey plovers, which use the East Asian-Australian flyway every year,” he said.

Researchers are trying to better understand the migration of birds that spend their summers in South Australia before flying the mammoth journey to breeding grounds in Mongolia, Siberia and Alaska every year.

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