Come See Our Bathing Beauties

Nelson is home to an astonishing number of waterbird species – 95 according to the 2017 Ramsar site Ecological Character Description. This was one of the reasons the site was nominated for Ramsar status.

Some birds are easily identified, like the Black Swan or the fancy looking one at number 8 in the picture gallery below. To the regular punter, others seem nearly impossible to tell apart. Particularly the small Australian and migratory shorebirds we see on the beach. Can you tell the difference between birds 4 and 5?

The AI app I asked about number 4 made a few very close suggestions. It said I should ask a bird identification tool that uses AI to match plumage and markings. That’s OK, but not much fun. It doesn’t work if you haven’t grabbed a good closeup picture.

If you are, say, an ecologist doing bird counts for a professional survey, you need to be able to make decisions quickly about lots of birds on the fly. An important job, as those observations may determine whether a construction project should go ahead or not.

Or a serious amateur birder who contributes to citizen science, eg. by submitting sightings to birdata (BirdLife Australia’s national bird monitoring program). You need to be skilled and have a really good camera.

For a relaxed visit to Nelson’s estuary or ocean beach or on the river, it’s enough for me to be able to make a good guess at an ID. Take along a bird book or even run a photo through iNaturalist – but don’t forget to just admire and enjoy Nelson’s Bathing Beauties.

Can you ID the birds without looking at the key?