Farewell Spit (New Zealand) IBA | Details

NZ032

Farewell Spit

Current view: Data table and detailed info

IBA Justification

The site was identified as internationally important for bird conservation 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 List	Season (year/s of estimate)	Size	IBA criteria
Australasian Bittern Botaurus poiciloptilus	VU	resident (-)	present	A1
Australasian Gannet Morus serrator	LC	breeding (1985–2011)	1,204–4,819 pairs	A4ii
Black-billed Gull Larus bulleri	NT	non-breeding (2012)	min 31 pairs	A1
Black-fronted Tern Chlidonias albostriatus	EN	non-breeding (2012)	min 5 pairs	A1

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 of population/area (>90%)	slow decline (1–10% over 3 generations)	high
Climate change and severe weather	happening now	some of population/area (10–49%)	slow decline (1–10% over 3 generations)	medium
Human intrusions and disturbance	likely in long term (>4 years)	few individuals/small area (<10%)	no or slight decline (<1% over 3 generations)	low

Response (conservation actions taken for the trigger species and/or their habitats)
Designation	Planning	Action	Result
Not assessed	Not assessed	Not assessed	not assessed

IBA Protection

Year	Protected Area	Designation (management category)	% coverage of IBA
1938	Farewell Spit	Nature Reserve (Ia)	100

Habitats

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

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 23/12/2024.