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Story: Wading birds

Banded dotterel chick

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Banded dotterel chick

This tiny chick has left the nest within a few hours of hatching, and feeds itself while the parents stand guard. Foods include spiders, beetles, caterpillars and berries. When it is five or six weeks old it will fledge, and within a few days will join flocks of dotterels at coastal feeding sites.

Using this item

Department of Conservation

Reference: 10031488

by Rod Morris

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How to cite this page

Gerard Hutching, Wading birds – Dotterels, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/9170/banded-dotterel-chick (accessed 10 June 2026).

Story by Gerard Hutching, published 2 March 2009.