The Anson Bay, Daly and Reynolds River Floodplains comprise some of seasonally inundated

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...

s around Anson Bay, and the lower reaches of the

Daly A disability-adjusted life year (DALY) is a measure of overall disease burden, representing a year lost due to ill-health, disability, or early death. It was developed in the 1990s as a way of comparing the overall health and life expectancy of d ...

, Reynolds and Docherty Rivers entering the bay, on the west coast of the

Top End The Top End of Australia's Northern Territory is a geographical region encompassing the northernmost section of the Northern Territory, which aside from the Cape York Peninsula is the northernmost part of the Australian continent. It covers a ...

of the

Northern Territory of Australia The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

. Anson's Bay lies about south-west of Darwin, on the eastern side of the

Joseph Bonaparte Gulf Joseph Bonaparte Gulf is a large body of water off the coast of the Northern Territory and Western Australia and part of the Timor Sea. It was named after Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon and King of Naples (1806–1808) and then Spain (18 ...

, opening on to the

Timor Sea The Timor Sea (, , or ) is a relatively shallow sea in the Indian Ocean bounded to the north by the island of Timor with Timor-Leste to the north, Indonesia to the northwest, Arafura Sea to the east, and to the south by Australia. The Sunda Tr ...

. The site is important for large numbers, and a wide variety, of

waterbird A water bird, alternatively waterbird or aquatic bird, is a bird that lives on or around water. In some definitions, the term ''water bird'' is especially applied to birds in freshwater ecosystems, although others make no distinction from seabi ...

Birds

The floodplains have been identified as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

because they support large numbers of

magpie geese The magpie goose (''Anseranas semipalmata'') is the sole living representative species of the family Anseranatidae. This common waterbird is found in northern Australia and southern New Guinea. As the species is prone to wandering, especially wh ...

wandering whistling duck The wandering whistling duck (''Dendrocygna arcuata'') is a species of whistling duck. They inhabit tropical and subtropical Australia, the Philippines, Borneo, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and the Pacific Islands. Taxonomy There are three subs ...

pied heron The pied heron (''Egretta picata''), also known as the pied egret is a bird found in coastal and subcoastal areas of monsoonal northern Australia as well as some parts of Wallacea and New Guinea. Taxonomy The species was originally described by ...

s and

intermediate egret The medium egret (''Ardea intermedia''), median egret, smaller egret or intermediate egret, is a medium-sized heron. Some taxonomists put the species in the genus ''Egretta'' or ''Mesophoyx''. It is a resident breeder in southern and eastern As ...

s. The adjacent

intertidal The intertidal zone or foreshore is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide; in other words, it is the part of the littoral zone within the tidal range. This area can include several types of habitats with various sp ...

mudflat Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal ...

s of Anson Bay support up to 27,000

wader 245px, A flock of Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflats in order to foraging, ...

s, or shorebirds, probably including over 1% of the world population of

great knot __NOTOC__ The great knot (''Calidris tenuirostris'') is a small wader. It is the largest species of the genus ''Calidris''. They are a migratory bird which breeds in Siberia, Russia, and flies to southern Asia and Australia in the northern winte ...

s. The site several large waterbird nesting colonies; other birds that breed in relatively large numbers include little black, little pied and

pied cormorant The Australian pied cormorant (''Phalacrocorax varius''), also known as the pied cormorant, pied shag, or great pied cormorant, is a medium-sized member of the cormorant family. It is found around the coasts of Australasia. In New Zealand, it i ...

darter The darters, anhingas, or snakebirds are mainly tropical waterbirds in the family Anhingidae, which contains a single genus, ''Anhinga''. There are four living species, three of which are very common and widespread while the fourth is rarer and c ...

Australian white ibis The Australian white ibis (''Threskiornis molucca'') is a wading bird of the family (biology), family Threskiornithidae. It is widespread across much of Australia. It has a predominantly white plumage with a bare, black head, long downcurved b ...

es,

royal spoonbill The royal spoonbill (''Platalea regia''), also known as the black-billed spoonbill, occurs in intertidal flats and shallows of fresh and saltwater wetlands in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands. (In New ...

Australian pelican The Australian pelican (''Pelecanus conspicillatus'') is a large waterbird in the family Pelecanidae, widespread on the inland and coastal waters of Australia and New Guinea, also in Fiji, parts of Indonesia and as a vagrant in New Zealand. It ...

great Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" * Artel Great (bo ...

, intermediate and

cattle egret The cattle egret (formerly genus ''Bubulcus'') is a cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan clade of heron (family (biology), family Ardeidae) in the genus ''Ardea (genus), Ardea'' found in the tropics, subtropics, and warm-temperate zones. Ac ...

s and

nankeen night heron The nankeen night heron (''Nycticorax caledonicus'') is a heron that belongs to the genus '' Nycticorax'' and the family Ardeidae. Due to its distinctive reddish-brown colour, it is also commonly referred to as the rufous night heron. It is prim ...

s. The IBA also supports

bush stone-curlew The bush stone-curlew or bush thick-knee (''Burhinus grallarius'', obsolete name ''Burhinus magnirostris'') is a large, ground-dwelling bird Endemism, endemic to Australia. Its favoured habitat is open plains and woodlands, where it stalks slowly ...

varied lorikeet The varied lorikeet (''Psitteuteles versicolor''), is a species of parrot in the family Psittacidae that is endemic to the northern coastal regions of Australia. It is the only species in the genus ''Psitteuteles''. Taxonomy The first depictio ...

rainbow pitta The rainbow pitta (''Pitta iris'') is a small passerine bird in the Pitta (genus), pitta Family (biology), family, Pitta, Pittidae, endemism, endemic to northern Australia, most closely related to the superb pitta of Manus Island. It has a velv ...

s, white-gaped and

bar-breasted honeyeater The bar-breasted honeyeater (''Ramsayornis fasciatus'') is a species of bird in the family Meliphagidae. It is endemic to northern Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia ...

s, silver-crowned friarbirds and canary white-eyes. The Peron Islands at the northern end of the bay seasonally support up to 15,000 white-winged terns.BirdLife International. (2011). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Anson Bay, Daly and Reynolds River Floodplains. Downloaded from on 7 December 2011

References

Important Bird Areas of the Northern Territory Wetlands of the Northern Territory Bays of the Northern Territory Rivers of the Northern Territory Floodplains of Australia {{NorthernTerritory-river-stub