Birds of the kanamaluka / Tamar estuary

The kanamaluka / Tamar estuary forms part of the East Asian – Australian flyway; a migratory corridor, extending thousands of kilometres from bird breeding grounds in the Russian Tundra, Mongolia, and Alaska, to non-breeding grounds in the southern hemisphere.

Female chestnut teal (Anas castanea).

Migratory birds that use the East Asian - Australian flyway are protected under federal legislation, and the kanamaluka / Tamar estuary provides habitat to over 20 migratory bird species.

Many of these migratory birds rely on the wetlands and mudflats of the lower and upper kanamaluka / Tamar estuary. In fact, Birdlife International has listed the water and intertidal mudflats of the estuary from Launceston to Batman Bridge as an Important Bird Area (IBA).

More than one percent of the global chestnut teal and pied oystercatcher populations rely on the kanamaluka / Tamar estuary during a key stage of their life cycle. This has resulted in the area being recognised as a Key Biodiversity Area by Birdlife Australia.

Birds and the Biological Monitoring Program

Many bird species reliant on the estuary are sensitive to poor water quality and changes to their habitat, which can result in losses to potential food sources and reduced roosting and nesting. This can affect reproduction and survival.

Ongoing monitoring of bird populations by experienced citizen scientists will help us to:

investigate trends in the distribution of bird populations through time, as well as key threatened bird species;
gain insight into how they respond to environmental changes, such as changing water quality, sea level rise, habitat fragmentation, and exotic competitors and predators; and
better understand the overall biological health of the estuary.

White-bellied sea eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster)

Hoary-headed grebe (Poliocephalus poliocephalus)

The State of Tamar Birds Report

Long-term bird population data for the kanamaluka / Tamar estuary are collected by a group of dedicated BirdLife Tasmania citizen scientists. Many of the datasets stretch back to 1998, largely thanks to the pioneering efforts of Ralph and Barbara Cooper, and more recently, Helen Cunningham.

In 2022, the TEER Program commissioned Birdlife Tasmania to produce a report on the state of bird species and guilds that utilise the kanamaluka / Tamar estuary and foreshore. The information presented in the report includes data sets collected consistently for more than 25 years. This report was completed in 2024 and provides the first focused assessment of bird health for the kanamaluka. The report is provided in full below, and as individual sections.