Two iconic Australian shorebirds have been added to the critically endangered list.*
The extraordinary sickle-billed Eastern curlew, and its smaller cousin, the curlew sandpiper, are the first shorebirds on the list.
Population numbers of these curlews have crashed as a result of development along their migratory routes, according to BirdLife Australia.
"To a lot of people they're just mysterious brown birds out there on the mud flats," Birdlife's Sean Dooley said. "But they are quite astonishing birds when you get to know them."
Marathon migrations take them from Australia's wetlands to Arctic breeding grounds, and back, each year.
Building developments over feeding grounds along the route, particularly along the Yellow Sea between China and the Korean peninsula, mean these birds have lost many of the mud flats on which they probe for food.
"The crisis seems that much bigger, because they're such a great example of the global connectedness of nature," Mr Dooley said. "Australian birds like the curlew are iconic in Alaska as well."
The Eastern curlew is the largest migratory shorebird in the world, known for using the length of its extraordinary bill to work deep down into mud and sand after prey.
The curlew sandpiper was until recently one of the most common of the group of small shoreline-running birds found along Australia's coasts.
At the furthest extent of the East Asian-Australasian flyway, in southern Tasmania, the most catastrophic losses have been counted. There, 90 per cent of curlews have gone and 100 per cent of curlew sandpipers, said Eric Woehler, convenor of BirdLife Tasmania.
Across the country there has been an 81 per cent decline in curlews over three generations, and an 82 per cent decline in curlew sandpipers, according to official advice to the Environment Minister, Greg Hunt.
The advice proposes international action to prevent the destruction of more migratory staging sites along the flyway – and better protection in Australia, including temporarily closing beaches when they are present.
*According to Environment Department figures, of 828 living Australian bird species, 11 are now listed as critically endangered, with the next step being extinction.
They are: King Island scrub tit, thick-billed grasswren, curlew sandpiper, spotted quail-thrush, yellow chat, helmeted honeyeater, orange-bellied parrot, eastern curlew, western ground parrot, round island petrel, herald petrel.
