3.1Local conservation strategies

3.1 Local conservation strategies

Dunlop (2018) outlines a number of practical solutions for protecting colonies from human encroachment, predators and innovative ways to boost breeding success.

One approach to improving Australian Fairy Tern breeding performance within local coastal populations is to encourage the terns to select secure or manageable nesting sites. This can be done using social facilitation techniques that involve the deployment of decoys (models of incubating terns) in configurations that mimic the early stages of colony formation and playbacks of colony noises (Dunlop 2018). The effectiveness of the decoy colonies can also be augmented with continuous playback of contact (flock) or advertising calls, although this may not be necessary in all situations.

Decoy colonies have been used successfully on tern species that nest close together and do not retain nest sites between breeding attempts (e.g. Dunlop 1987). Social facilitation methods have been used effectively on Crested, Caspian, Sooty and Least Terns, and will probably be effective for Australian Fairy Terns (Dunlop 2018). The basic preconditions for attracting terns to a preferred location are an appropriate nesting habitat type, overflying terns in breeding condition and sufficient prey resources within the economic foraging range (Dunlop 2018).