Tracking Latham's snipe migration from Japan to southern Australia

At the length of a school ruler and weighing only 200 grams, flying 8,000 kilometres from Japan to Australia would be no easy feat.

Yet every summer thousands of Latham's snipe (Gallinago hardwickii) migrate from Hokkaido in northern Japan to south-eastern Australia.

The birds arrive in Australia between August and September and feed in shallow wetlands along the eastern seaboard before returning to Japan for their breeding season in March and April.

"It only takes two days for them to get from Japan to the north coast of Australia but then we don't really know what happens next, it disperses throughout the east coast of Australia," Jason Cummings from ACT Woodlands and Wetlands Trust said.

"These birds have adapted to spend their entire lives in the summertime effectively."

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