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How many Hoodies are there? There are around 2800 Eastern Hooded Plovers; 500 in Victoria; <50 in sthn. NSW; 600-800 in SA; and 1000-1500 in Tas. Eastern Hooded Plovers are extinct in Qld. and ntn. NSW. There are around 2000 Western Hooded Plvoers. Are Hoodies threatened? Yes - the IUCN lists both Eastern and Western Hoodies as vulnerable to extinction. State Governments in Victoria and South Australia recognise their populations as Vulnerable, and NSW as critically endangered. When do Hoodies nest? In the east Hoodies nest any time from August to April, but it often depends on the weather. Some pairs will start breeding early on in the season and others will wait until the conditions are right on their beach. In WA, nesting has been recorded in every month of the year. Are Hoodies bad parents because they don’t feed their chicks? No! Chicks need to learn how to find food for themselves so they can survive when they fledge. Hoodies guard their chicks very closely chasing away the predators they can and distracting and confusing bigger predators and people. Parents often spend so much time protecting their chicks they go without food themselves. How many Hoodies nests survive? Not many! in the east only around 40% of our nests hatch, and - even worse - <25% of our chicks survive when they are lucky enough to hatch! But, when people help (fence nests, put out chick shelters etc.) and Hoodies get some space to breed, their nest survival goes up by 400%! How long do Hoodies live? Hoodies live a long time for such a little bird. Some banded birds have been found to live for >15 years. They are very good at looking after themselves once they can fly, their problem is getting to that age! Do Hoodies move around much? Yes and no... Hoodies are good flyers and often move around in the non-breeding season finding the best places to feed. But they love their home beaches, and often return to exactly the same spot to breed year after year What do Hoodies eat? Hoodies eat things like such as small crustaceans and amphipods that are washed up on the sand or rocks. They love feeding around seaweed because there’s often lots of food washed up with it. What are the threats to Hoodies survival? There are lots. Not all threats operate at once, and some places are better then others, but the main things that hurt Hoodies are:
What is disturbance? Because nests and chicks are so vulnerable, Hoodies have to react to all potential threats. This means that any person dog, fox, bird, vehicle or horse in a nesting territory will disturb Hoodies. What is disturbance? Because nests and chicks are so vulnerable, Hoodies have to react to all potential threats. This means that any person dog, fox, bird, vehicle or horse in a nesting territory will disturb Hoodies. While a single disturbance may not directly kill a chick or destroy a nest, prolonged and frequent disturbances do. It’s often the overall (cumulative) impact, many small disturbances, that add up to too much time off the eggs or for a chick, too much energy spent running to cover and not feeding. A family of Hoodies can experience hundreds of disturbances in a day. How far away do I need to be to avoid disturbing Hoodies? It varies, Hoodies will generally be drawn off a nest or away from chicks (or the chicks disturbed themselves) when people, dogs, vehicles or horses are within 50-100m of them, but pairs in remote areas that are unused to the presence of people may be much more sensitive - perhaps being disturbed by the presence of threats within 200m or even more. |