I have been working with Northern New Zealand dotterel (NNZD) for nearly five years now. I know this bird really well but I had to look a lot closer when I decided to try and make a decoy. Southern New Zealand dotterel (SNZD) are in big trouble with a small and declining population. I decided to see if a decoy would work to help capture SNZD which have been difficult to catch outside of breeding season. A well placed decoy could help position one or more birds near a leg-hold noose-mat trap or in position for a canon net.
I put the decoy about 20m away from some NNZD at Point England and on both occasions each NNZD walked over to the decoy (with head bobs) in less than two minutes. They stayed just less than 1M away for two minutes before I removed the decoy.
I need to fix the beak, refine the plumage and add spikes to the removable legs but so far it looks promising.
UPDATE: I have made a small flock of them. They are not quite right but should do the job.
