WA Seabird Conservation Network

🐦 Global Call: Monitoring Seabird Responses to the 2026–2027 Super El Niño 🌊

Calling the global seabird community! A potentially exceptional El Niño is underway, and we have a unique opportunity to document its impacts on seabirds worldwide.

This is an early call for monitoring. We invite researchers, monitoring programs, conservation organisations, Indigenous communities, citizen scientists, and seabird enthusiasts to join this collaborative effort. Our goal is to build a global network documenting seabird responses to this exceptional climate event, with the potential for a coordinated global synthesis.

Potential observations could include:
🐣 Breeding phenology and success
🐥 Chick growth and survival
🐦 Adult condition and mortality
🐟 Diet and prey composition
🏝️ Colony size, attendance, and behaviour
🧭 Distribution shifts and unusual movements
⚠️ Unusual events (e.g., mass mortality, disease, colony abandonment)
🌦️ Local weather and ocean conditions

Whether you monitor one colony or hundreds, every observation helps build a global picture of how seabirds respond to extreme climate events.

📍Monitoring can take place anywhere in the world.
🤝 We welcome collaborators from all regions and experience levels.

Interested in participating or want to learn more?
📧 Email: [email protected] or
📋 Complete the Expression of Interest form (link in bio).

Please share this post with colleagues and monitoring programs who may be interested. Together, we can build a global picture of how seabirds respond to one of the strongest climate events on Earth.

Breeding summary of the New Zealand Fairy Tern population by the New Zealand Fairy Tern Charitable Trust . Hopefully they stay free of the impacts of the H5 bird flu.

Your latest NZFTCT Newsletter should be dropping into your inboxes right now . Oh my goodness It’s such a good read ! Snippets include up to the minute data on current numbers . ‘stakeholders
Breeding Summary: These numbers were confirmed at the recent hui in the presentation by Docs Ayla Wiles acting Tara iti
programme lead.

Breeding data: 29 eggs were laid;
20 chicks hatched
16 chicks fledged – 6 in the wild ( 5 male, 1 female)
captive ( 5 male , 5 female)
This season’s challenges were: the numbers lost to predation , the inconclusive autopsy results and the risks to captive reared
chicks in the early fledging period.
Successes: population increase!
survival of 1 1 juveniles confirmed sighted in the Kaipara and LM - BW , the first surviving captive
female , prospecting at Waipū with a male’
Photo Darren Markin .

WASCN is undertaking a community-led silver gull project to estimate their population size and determine population trend, as it appears to have been dwindling since 2004.

The goal is to count nesting silver gulls in newly digitised historical photographic slides taken on Penguin & Carnac Islands.

Join us at the Dome in Manning on Sunday, 30 August, 2pm, to help with the count, and you will be rewarded with a tea/coffee/beverage & cake of your choice during the exercise.

Places are limited so be sure to register by sending an email to Aurelie at [email protected]

Thank you to Plico for supporting this project.

Graphic courtesy of Red Cloud Design - earth healing

H5 bird flu is a virus that mainly affects birds and some mammals.

It is the serious bird flu strain that has been circulating globally.

Australia is continuing to respond to recent coastal detections of H5 bird flu in individual seabirds.

There are no detections in poultry or any evidence of large-scale deaths in wildlife.

The current risk of bird flu to people in Australia is low.

You can help. 🤝

If you see a group of sick or dead wildlife:
• Avoid contact and keep your distance. 🚫
• Record the date, time and location, and take photos if it is safe to do so. 📍
• Report it to the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline on 1800 675 888. 📞

H5 bird flu has been detected in Australia.

If you notice multiple sick or dead birds or other animals, you should not touch them or get too close. Record your location and report it to the 24-hour Emergency Animal Disease Hotline on 1800 675 888.

More information is available in the update below.

Bird flu (Avian influenza) Bird flu (Avian influenza)

"The shearwater tells a story of ocean health, seasonal change and ancestral guardianship across the globe, which is why communities on both sides of the Pacific are working together to protect them."

Following the Flight of Yowli From Wudjari to Alaska

Today brings difficult news for everyone who cares about Australia's birds.

The Federal Government has now confirmed that the Brown Skua found in southwest Western Australia, which was previously suspected of having H5 bird flu, has tested positive for the virus. This marks the first confirmed detection of this devastating strain on mainland Australia.

Around the world, H5 bird flu has caused catastrophic losses, killing millions of wild birds and pushing already vulnerable species closer to extinction.

For Australia's birds, the stakes could not be higher.

One in six Australian bird species is already threatened with extinction, with many populations already under pressure from habitat loss, climate change and other human impacts. The arrival of H5 bird flu presents a serious new challenge.

BirdLife Australia is closely monitoring this developing situation and will continue advocating for strong monitoring, preparedness and coordinated action to help protect our birds.

We need your help more than ever so that we can continue to do our work to protect Australia's birds. Your donation means more now than ever.

Donate today: https://brnw.ch/21x3uZc

For more information visit our bird flu hub: https://brnw.ch/21x3uZd