Port Hedland Saltworks Important Bird Area
Encyclopedia
Saltern
Saltern is a word with a number of differing meanings. In English archaeology, a saltern is an area used for salt making, especially in the East Anglian fenlands....
, lying about 20 km east of the port
Port
A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....
of Port Hedland
Port Hedland, Western Australia
Port Hedland is the highest tonnage port in Australia and largest town in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, with a population of approximately 14,000 ....
on the coast of the Pilbara region of north-west Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
. The salt processing facility is operated by Dampier Salt Ltd
Dampier Salt
Dampier Salt is an Australian salt company located in Western Australia, with operations in Dampier, Port Hedland, and Lake MacLeod, with headquarters in Perth...
, part of the Rio Tinto Group
Rio Tinto Group
The Rio Tinto Group is a diversified, British-Australian, multinational mining and resources group with headquarters in London and Melbourne. The company was founded in 1873, when a multinational consortium of investors purchased a mine complex on the Rio Tinto river, in Huelva, Spain from the...
.
Description
The Important Bird AreaImportant Bird Area
An Important Bird Area is an area recognized as being globally important habitat for the conservation of bird populations. Currently there are about 10,000 IBAs worldwide. The program was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife International...
(IBA) comprises a system of evaporation ponds
Salt evaporation pond
Salt evaporation ponds, also called salterns or salt pans, are shallow artificial ponds designed to produce salts from sea water or other brines. The seawater or brine is fed into large ponds and water is drawn out through natural evaporation which allows the salt to be subsequently harvested...
, the intake zone where seawater enters, and the adjacent intertidal mudflat
Mudflat
Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats, are coastal wetlands that form when mud is deposited by tides or rivers. They are found in sheltered areas such as bays, bayous, lagoons, and estuaries. Mudflats may be viewed geologically as exposed layers of bay mud, resulting from deposition of...
s. The system includes levee
Levee
A levee, levée, dike , embankment, floodbank or stopbank is an elongated naturally occurring ridge or artificially constructed fill or wall, which regulates water levels...
banks and scattered mangrove
Mangrove
Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...
s. During low tides, waterbirds forage on the mudflats and along nearby creeks. During high tides, they move to the saltworks to continue feeding or to roost.
Port Hedland Saltworks
The Port Hedland Saltworks was purchased by Dampier Salt in 2001, and covers an operational area of about 91 km2 of which the nine evaporation ponds take up 78 km2. It has an annual production capacity of 3.2 Mt.Birds
The site has been identified by BirdLife InternationalBirdLife International
BirdLife International is a global Partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources...
as an IBA because it regularly supports over 1% of the world populations of Red-necked Stint
Red-necked Stint
The Red-necked Stint is a small migratory wader.- Description :These birds are among the smallest of waders, very similar to the Little Stint, Calidris minuta, with which they were once considered conspecific...
s and Sharp-tailed Sandpiper
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper
The Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Calidris acuminata is a small wader.- Taxonomy :More recently, a review of new data has indicated that this bird should perhaps better be placed into the genus Philomachus- as P...
s, as well as a population of the range-restricted Dusky Gerygone
Dusky Gerygone
The Dusky Gerygone is a species of bird in the Acanthizidae family.It is endemic to Australia.Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical mangrove forests.-References:...
. It previously supported much greater numbers of several more species of waterbirds, especially wader
Wader
Waders, called shorebirds in North America , are members of the order Charadriiformes, excluding the more marine web-footed seabird groups. The latter are the skuas , gulls , terns , skimmers , and auks...
s, with counts of up to 66,800 birds present; however, since the expansion of the saltworks in the 1990s numbers have dropped to 5000-10,000. Species that have strongly declined since the 1980s are Broad-billed Sandpiper
Broad-billed Sandpiper
The Broad-billed Sandpiper is a small wading bird. It is the only member of the genus Limicola; some have proposed that it should be placed in the genus Erolia with the "stint" sandpipers, but more recent research suggests that it is should rather go into the genus Philomachus with the ruff and...
s, Asian Dowitchers, Curlew Sandpiper
Curlew Sandpiper
The Curlew Sandpiper is a small wader that breeds on the tundra of Arctic Siberia. It is strongly migratory, wintering mainly in Africa, but also in south and southeast Asia and in Australasia...
s, Red-necked Avocet
Red-necked Avocet
The Red-necked Avocet is a water bird found throughout Australia, except for the northern parts of the Northern Territory....
s, Banded Stilt
Banded Stilt
The Banded Stilt is a nomadic stilt from Australia. It belongs to the monotypical genus Cladorhynchus. It gets its name from the red-brown breast band found on breeding adults, but this is mottled or entirely absent in non-breeding adults and juveniles. Its remaining plumage is pied and the eyes...
s, Oriental Plover
Oriental Plover
The Oriental Plover, Charadrius veredus, also known as the Oriental Dotterel, is a medium-sized Charadriine plover closely related to the Caspian Plover.- Description :...
s, Oriental Pratincole
Oriental Pratincole
The Oriental Pratincole , also known as the Grasshopper-Bird or Swallow-Plover is a wader in the pratincole family, Glareolidae....
s and White-winged Black Terns. Other species present include Australian Bustard
Australian Bustard
The Australian Bustard, Ardeotis australis, is a large ground bird of grassland, woodland and open agricultural country across northern Australia and southern New Guinea. It is also commonly referred to in Central Australia as the Bush Turkey, particularly by Aboriginal people.The male is up to ...
s, Bush Stone-curlew
Bush Stone-curlew
The Bush Stone-curlew or Bush Thick-knee is a large, ground-dwelling bird endemic to Australia...
s, Western Bowerbird
Western Bowerbird
The Western Bowerbird is a species of bird in the Bowerbird family. The species is a common endemic of Australia. It has a disjunct distribution, occurring in Central Australia and the Pilbara region of Western Australia. There are two subspecies, the nominate, which occupies most of its range,...
s, Painted Finches and Canary White-eyes.