Marcelina, the second ever Australian Painted-snipe to be tracked, all thanks to the generous people and organisations that contributed to our crowd-funded research. Special thanks to the Ricegrowers’ Association of Australia who bought her naming rights.
Marcelina, an adult female, weighed 150 grams and now carries a 2-gram satellite transmitter. We anticipate large movements in autumn.
The site where Marcelina was caught, a channel adjacent to an extensive wetland complex where 25 Australian Painted-snipe were located in October, 2023, by the legendary landholder.
This photo shows the beautiful pink-orange bill of Marcelina.
Marcelina was calm throughout the process of attaching the transmitter and leg loop harness, all undertaken with strict ethics approval and scientific permits.
The wetland area adjacent to the channel where Marcelina was caught.
Matt Herring, delighted to have caught the second APS for the tracking project.
Inka Veltheim, very pleased with her stellar job attaching the transmitter and harness. The fit was perfect!
Within two days of tracking, Marcelina has already used a range of sites, including this small wetland area about two kilometres from where we caught her.
Like Gloria, Marcelina has regularly been using dry roosting sites, sometimes hundreds of metres from water. This highlights the value of maintaining cover adjacent to wetland areas, and it’s something we can encourage landholders to do to benefit APS, potentially reducing predation risk.
