Farewell Spit (New Zealand) - BirdLife IBA factsheet

NZ032

Farewell Spit

Current view: Data table and detailed info

IBA Justification

The site was identified as important in 2014 because it was regularly supporting significant populations of the species listed below, meeting ('triggering') IBA criteria.

Populations meeting IBA criteria ('trigger species') at the site:

Species	Red List¹	Season	Year(s)	Size	IBA criteria
Australasian Bittern Botaurus poiciloptilus	VU	resident	-	present	A1
Australasian Gannet Morus serrator	LC	breeding	1985-2011	1,204-4,819 breeding pairs	A4ii
Black-billed Gull Larus bulleri	NT	non-breeding	2012	min 31 breeding pairs	A1
Black-fronted Tern Chlidonias albostriatus	EN	non-breeding	2012	min 5 breeding pairs	A1

1. The current IUCN Red List category. The category at the time of the IBA criteria assessment (2014) may differ.

IBA Conservation

Ideally the conservation status of the IBA will have been checked regularly since the site was first identified in 2014. The most recent assessment (2014) is shown below.

IBA conservation assessment
Year of assessment	State	Pressure	Response
2014	not assessed	high	not assessed
Whole site assessed?	State assessed by	Accuracy of information
no	unset	-

Pressure (threats to the trigger species and/or their habitats)
Threat	Timing	Scope	Severity	Result
Invasive and other problematic species and genes	happening now	whole area/population (>90%)	slow but significant deterioration	high
Climate change and severe weather	happening now	some of area/population (10-49%)	slow but significant deterioration	medium
Human intrusions and disturbance	likely in long term (beyond 4 years)	small area/few individuals (<10%)	no or imperceptible deterioration	low

Response (conservation actions taken for the trigger species and/or their habitats)
Protected areas	Management plan	Other action	Result
Not assessed	Not assessed	Not assessed	not assessed

IBA Protection

Year	Protected Area	Designation	% overlap with IBA
1938	Farewell Spit	Nature Reserve	100

Habitats

Habitat¹	Habitat detail	% of IBA
Marine Intertidal		83
Marine Coastal/Supratidal		major (>10)
Artificial/Terrestrial		minor (<10)
Forest		minor (<10)
Shrubland		minor (<10)

1. IUCN Habitat classification.

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Farewell Spit (New Zealand). Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/farewell-spit-iba-new-zealand on 22/11/2024.