First report of banded birds migrating between Australia and other parts of the world

Abstract

This series of intermittent reports is complementary to the annual reports of the Australian Bird-banding Scheme. The migratory status of Australian birds is briefly reviewed, and the evidence from banded birds is given in detail. At least 87 of the 650 Australian species leave the country. Most of these are sea-birds and waders, and 28 of them breed in Australia. The four main movements, and the number of species known at present to be involved in each, are transequatorial (39), equatorial (23), trans-Tasman (6), and trans-Southern Ocean (19). Nine species provide a total of 178 band recoveries. The Australian gannet, Sula serrator Gray, has 119 and the giant petrel, Macronectes giganteus (Gmelin), has 45 in Australia; the circum-polar dispersal of the latter is discussed from analysis of all recoveries distant from the three main banding-places. Unexpected records are a western common tern, Sterna hirundo hirundo L., from Sweden; an Arctic tern, Sterna macrura Naumann, from north-west Russia; and a 6-year old black duck, Anas superciliosa Gmelin, from New Zealand.