It has been a while since my last post hasn't it? This time I have come to try and convince you to vote for my favourite New Zealand bird, the Black-Billed Gull.
Reason One; | This is possibly one of, if not, the most important reasons to vote for Black-Billed Gull. Black-Bills are classified as "Nationally Critical" by DoC and listed as Decreasing (in population) by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. They are ground nesting birds that like to build their nests on rocky river beds and shell banks, sadly this leaves them vulnerable to vehicles and predators. Over the years there has been several occasions found of colonies being driven though, leaving young birds and eggs flattened in the tracks. |
Reason Two;
They need Publicity
You might not think this is that important, but if we are to get others to protect and admire Black-Billed Gulls, people need to know about them. Not too many people even know they are not the same as the sea-side gulls, Red-Billed Gulls.
Reason Five;
River Advocate
Black-Billed Gulls mainly nest on our Braided Rivers. Braided Rivers are an amazing habitat, they are host to several of our endangered species, including Black-Billed Gulls, Wry-bill, Banded Dotterel, Black-Fronted Tern and Black stilt (All of which are great votes too!) .
Any way, I do hope I have suppled some viable reasons to vote for this great species, if not maybe I have encouraged you to look at them more.
Either way, happy voting! (You can learn more and vote at birdoftheyear.org.nz
Amber Calman
P.S You can find Vote Black-Billed Gull on social media, Facebook here and Twitter here.
And thank you to Steve Atwood for the shot of the nesting gull.