Banded Dotterel

Status: Nationally vulnerable (click to see what this means)

Male banded dotterel

Braided river status 

Banded dotterels are present during the breeding season in August-January, and usually the most frequently encountered native bird species.  It favours nesting in the more stable and low-stature vegetated areas along the outer margins of the main waterways (distribution map).

Description

The double-banded plover (Charadrius bicinctus), known as the banded dotterel, double banded plover, or tuturiwhatu (Māori) in New Zealand, is a small (20cm) wader in the plover family of birds. It lives on beaches, mud flats, grasslands and bare ground. Two subspecies are recognised, the nominate Charadrius bicinctus bicinctus breeding in New Zealand and the Chatham Islands, and Charadrius bicinctus exilis breeding in the Auckland Islands.

Female banded dotterel on nest

Plumage

Adults in breeding plumage are white with a dark greyish brown back, a distinctive brown breast, and a thinner band of black below the neck and between the eyes and beak. Younger birds have no bands, and are often speckled brown on top, with less white parts.

They are fairly widespread in the south of New Zealand, but not often seen in the north. The nominate subspecies Charadrius bicinctus bicinctus is seen along mainland braided rivers. It is partly migratory, breeding in New Zealand and the Chatham Islands and some wintering in Australia, New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Fiji, others staying in New Zealand. The Auckland Islands subspecies is sedentary but some birds move from their territories to the shore.

Juvenile banded dotterel

Eggs

Their eggs are grey and speckled with black, making them well camouflaged against river stones and pebbles, which generally make up the main structure of their very simple nest.

Banded dotterel eggs

Conservation activities

• Using nesting ‘exclosure’ cages in Kaikoura
• See threats
• Canterbury Pest Management Strategy
• The Flock
• Predator trap instructions for DOC 150, 200 and 250 traps
  
• DOC 200 traps for sale (fundraiser for Ashley-Rakahuri Rivercare Group)

More information

• NZ Birds online (includes photos and sounds)
• Birdlife International (includes Google distribution map)
• Arkive
• NZ Birds

Research papers

• Research is currently underway on a colony located at South Bay, Kaikoura. For more information, contact Alisa Howard at Hutton’s Shearwater Trust. See also the ‘nesting cages’ Ailsa is trialling
  
• Dowding & Moore (2006) Habitat networks of indigenous shorebirds in New Zealand,  SCIENCE FOR CONSERVATION 261 (DOC open access PDF part 1 and PDF part 2)
• Hughey (1997) Diet of  Wrybill and Banded Dotterel Notornis 44: 185-193, Ornithological Society of New Zealand (Open access PDF)
• Rebergen et al (1998) Breeding Success and predation of nests New Zealand Journal of Ecology 22(1): 33-41, New Zealand Journal of Ecology (Open access PDF)
• Hughey (1998) Nesting home range sizes of Wrybill and Banded Dotterel Notornis 45: 103-111, Ornithological Society of New Zealand (Open access PDF)