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                                                                          SHOREBIRDS 

This week in Sustainability, our Junior students familiarized themselves with birds that live at the beach and wetlands. In Australia there are fifty species. These birds are called ‘waders’ because they wade in shallow water. Unlike seabirds, they can’t land on water because they don’t have webbed feet. Shorebirds are migratory birds and travel long distances. They can fly for days without sleep. Shorebirds live for many years. By the time they are twenty they would have flown the distance from the Earth to the moon, 384 000 kilometres. Shorebirds are classed as endangered because wetlands they rely on are changing. They rely on finding places to feed and rest along the flyway so it’s important to look after our wetland areas. 

Milly Formby is a zoologist whose book “A Shorebird Flying Adventure” and Migratory shorebirds connect our world on You Tube provide great information about these migratory birds. Students followed her journey in a microlight to learn more about shorebirds. For more information about shorebirds visit Birdlife Australia.