Some people claim to have a sixth sense for inclement weather, but no human can compete with a native Australian waterbird that knows when it has rained thousands of kilometres away.
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For the first time ecologists have tracked the movements of the highly nomadic banded stilt, a large desert bird that travels vast distances across the country to breed in desert salt lakes.
Deakin University researcher Reece Pedler said attaching tracking devices to 21 birds had unveiled amazing insights into the species' highly unpredictable mating behaviour, which relied on rare and shortlived flooding events.
"Since the first banded stilt breeding colony was discovered in 1930 there have been approximately only 35 breeding colonies recorded," he said.
Data from the solar-powered tracking devices showed the birds moved much faster and further than most other waterbirds, with one animal journeying more than 2200 kilometres in two and a half days from Lake Eyre to an ephemeral lake.
Another bird flew 1500 kilometres in six days.
"This satellite tracking has shown just how incredible their feats of movement are," said Mr Pedler, whose findings were published in the scientific journal Biology Letters.
"We were really surprised at the distance and speed of their movements and the way they able to rapidly move from part of Australia to another," he said.
While ecologists are yet to understand how the birds sense rain has fallen thousands of kilometres away, Mr Pedler said they may be responding to changes in barometric pressure, the sound of distant thunder or the smell of rain carried on long-range winds.
Understanding the birds' movements would help protect the species, which is listed as threatened, he said.
As part the study Mr Pedler had the unenviable task of trapping the difficult to catch birds to fit their satellite-tracking devices.
"We had to experiment with different methods of catching them," he said.
"In the end I innovated with this hand-held net launcher and I'd creep up to the birds on a boogie board and fire a net over them at close range," he said.