• EAAFP MOP11 – 4th Notification to Partners

    With regards to the continuing COVID-19 global pandemic situation, international travel measures and restrictions imposed in many Partner countries, the Australian Government and BirdLife Australia have proposed revised dates regarding the hosting of MoP11 to the 12th -17th March, 2023 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The EAAFP Management Committee has accepted the generous hosting offer from the Australian co-hosts. The Management Committee also endorsed the Secretariat organizing a series of webinars to increase dialogue with and between Partners. This is also an opportunity for Partners to be briefed on important issues to be tabled for consideration at MoP11, including Activities of the Secretariat; Draft Guidelines for National/Site Partnerships and Sister Site Programme; Migratory Waterbird Conservation Status Review; Update on the ADB Regional Flyway Initiative; Briefing on the proposed Partner Reporting Template for MoP 11, etc. The webinars are proposed for June, 2022. Further notification and details will be announced in due course. The EAAFP Secretariat regrets any inconvenience caused by the postponement of MoP. The Secretariat will continue its work and update Partners, Working Groups and Task Forces on issues and the proposed decision papers related to MoP11 via email, the MoP11 webpage , and social media channels. Please feel free to contact the Secretariat at secretariat@eaaflyway.net for any relevant inquiries.


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  • A Shorebird Flying Adventure

    By Jackie Kerin and Milly Formby, CSIRO Publishing (Australia) Jackie and Milly are very excited to announce that the book, A Shorebird Flying Adventure, will be released in June 2022. Jackie has written the text and Milly has created the illustrations. The aim was to make an engaging and informative book for mid to upper primary school readers and their teachers. In A Shorebird Flying Adventure, Milly invites you to hop into her microlight and travel around the world to discover how amazing and awesome migratory shorebirds are. On the way you will meet the brilliant birds who travel phenomenal distances every year and explore their precious wetland habitats and breeding grounds. You will also discover fascinating facts about their diet and find out top tips to tell one species from another. In the illustrations, you will find over thirty birds (not all migratory shorebirds), wetland diagrams and maps. You will also see children calling out in languages from across the flyway including Chinese, Korean, Russian, Japanese and Thai, which in six languages! © Milly Formby Additional resources For educators, there are free downloadable resources on the Wing Threads website. • E-leaning pack • Teacher notes • Cartoon shorebird ID activity • Live shorebird tracking reports © Milly Formby The Flight Around OZ Milly will be taking off in her microlight on a real flying adventure around Australia in mid-2022. On the way, she will be visiting schools, libraries and wetland centres and spreading the shorebird word. Milly invites you all, wherever you are on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, to follow along and learn together. Let’s tell everyone why shorebirds are totally awesome! © Milly Formby Pre-order A Shorebird Flying Adventure and follow my Flight Around OZ Wing Threads [https://wingthreads.com/] CSIRO Publishing [https://www.publish.csiro.au/book/8006/] How the book came to be – in words of Milly Formby “Jackie and I love birds – especially migratory shorebirds, so our paths were destined to cross one day. It was 2018, at the Australasian Shorebird Conference in Tasmania. I’d just presented on Wing Threads and Flight Around Oz - my project to fly around Australia in my microlight to raise awareness for migratory shorebirds, and Jackie was in the audience. She approached me afterwards, very excited by my presentation and suggested that my adventure would make a great picture book for children. However, at the time I was pretty busy training and making plans and anyway - what did I know about publishing and creating books for children? Less than a year later, at the Australasian Ornithological Conference in Darwin, I was approached again, this time by CSIRO Publishing! Okay so this idea wasn’t going away and now it had legs. To cut a long story short (you’d be amazed how much work it is to write and illustrate a 32 page illustrated book), with the support of CSIRO, Jackie and I set to work. To the people who work so hard to create conferences – thank you. Wonderful, unexpected projects can hatch around the cakes at morning tea time. Cheers to all our Flyway Friends” © Milly Formby Milly Formby Pilot, zoologist, illustrator and bird nerd! Follow her  amazing journey around Australia at Wing Threads © Jackie Kerin Jackie Kerin is the author of several award-winning non-fiction illustrated books for children as well as a storyteller. Follow her channel: https://www.jackiekerin.com.au/ Wing Threads acknowledges the support of the EAAFP and the Small Grant Fund.


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  • The irreplaceable habitat of Australia’s Moreton Bay to migratory watebirds, in particular to the Endangered Far Eastern Curlew

    The irreplaceable habitat of Australia’s Moreton Bay to migratory watebirds, in particular to the Endangered Far Eastern Curlew Far Eastern…


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  • International Travellers to New Zealand

    In New Zealand international travel for people is virtually halted because of…


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  • Early birds prompt celebration on World Migratory Bird Day in Adelaide

    A keen group of bird enthusiasts attended a World Migratory Bird Day event held at St Kilda, South Australia, by Friends of Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary (FAIBS) on Sunday…


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  • Official Launching of Regional Flyway Initiative

    On 14th October, The East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP), in cooperation with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and BirdLife International today launched the Regional Flyway Initiative (RFI), a long-term…


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  • Launch of “Coastal High-tide Shorebird Habitat Management Guidelines”

    The EAAFP Secretariat, together with the Australasian Wader Studies Group are hosting a webinar “Launch Event: Coastal High-tide Shorebird Habitat Management Guidelines” on 17 September at 4pm…


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  • World Migratory Bird Day 2021 May Event– Australia (The Overwintering Project)

    Event title: Stories of Home Date: 8th May, 2021 Participants: 12-20 members of the local youth communities (aged 14-18) with migrant or Indigenous backgrounds, 200 participants of…


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  • World Migratory Bird Day 2021 May Event– Australia (FAIBS)

    Event title: ‘Winaityinaityi Pangkara – The Country of the Birds’ – A short film by Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary in South Australia Organizer: Friends of Adelaide…


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  • Australia published National Directory of Important Migratory Shorebird Habitat

    A National Directory of Important Migratory Shorebird Habitat ('Directory') was newly published by BirdLife Australia and supported by the Australian Government. The Directory identifies, and guides investment into the protection and restoration of, important migratory shorebird habitat around Australia. It builds community awareness and Indigenous knowledge, helps achieve the goals of the Australian Government’s Wildlife Conservation Plan for Migratory Shorebirds and contributes to the implementation of Australia’s international obligations to the conservation and management of migratory shorebirds. It is based on thousands of field surveys by volunteers and experts, millions of bird sightings and uses rigorous methodology to identify key sites, thus providing useful and objective guidance. Habitat is key: Populations of many species of migratory shorebirds have undergone substantial decline over recent and extended periods of time. As an example, numbers of Far Eastern Curlew (Numenius madagascariensis) have declined by more than 80% over the course of by now four decades. Halting this decline and reversing the current trend is without alternative if threatened species are to avoid extinction and continue to contribute as an integral component of Australia nation’s biodiversity to the functioning of Australia’s ecosystems. Actions and processes threatening migratory shorebird habitat have to be effectively recognized and mitigated. In order to achieve this, decision-makers and stakeholders around Australia need to be able to easily access information on the importance of sites for migratory shorebirds. The directory provides this crucial link which was not previously been available. The Directory also provides a starting point for a more comprehensive assessment of the current state of the habitat listed, a prioritization of sites according to current or future threats experienced and more targeted conservation action. This directly addresses and supports some of the priority actions in the Australian Government’s Wildlife Conservation Plan for Migratory Shorebirds across the main objectives: protection of important habitat, anthropogenic threat minimization or elimination and knowledge gap identification. A number of high priority projects are already in the process of being implemented, the Directory makes those more effective and targeted. The Directory is an important step towards effective migratory shorebird habitat protection around Australia. Revision of conservation and management plans for many sites may be necessary to reflect their importance. Specific site action plans detailing conservation measures to be taken for migratory shorebirds at a single site can be developed as a follow-up action. The directory thus also represents a key resource underpinning further conservation measures under Australia’s Conservation Action Plan for Migratory Shorebirds and other frameworks. The Australian Government, which provided gratefully acknowledged funding for this scientific project delivered by BirdLife Australia, has approved of the Directory after consultations with its Committees and all Australian States and Territories. The document has been officially launched on 21 April 2021. It is available for download in *.pdf format in its latest version: National Directory of Important Migratory Shorebird Habitat Download the complete Directory (one file or, due to file size, chapters separately) from the download folder. It is advised to always read the Introduction and Discussion alongside the chapter you need. Overview of chapters: Introduction and Methods Chapter 1 - External Territories Chapter 2 - New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory Chapter 3 - Northern Territory Chapter 4 - Queensland Chapter 5 - South Australia Chapter 6 - Tasmania Chapter 7 - Victoria Chapter 8 - Western Australia Chapter 9 - Species accounts (listing of sites by species, not by site) Discussion and Appendices Due to the large size of the document (1287 pages printed), there are no printed copies are available – please arrange for own printing and binding if desired. If you have feedback on the Directory process or the Directory itself, or you have additional data to contribute to a potential future revision, please write to directory.feedback@birdlife.org.au If you have other questions regarding the Directory, please contact shorebirds@birdlife.org.au For data extractions from BirdLife Australia’s  shorebird data holdings, see the Data Extractions section. Repost from BirdLife Australia news article: https://birdlife.org.au/projects/shorebirds/national-directory-ms-habitat (Released on: 21st April, 2021) Know more about Flyway Network Sites in Australia: www.eaaflyway.net/australia/  


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