Curlew Homecoming 2026

BirdLife Southern NSW, the Sutherland Shire Environment Centre and Bundeena Progress Association invite you to visit beautiful Bundeena on Sunday 11 October 2026 to celebrate Curlew Homecoming 2026, a festival to welcome the return of Critically Endangered Far Eastern Curlews after their transglobal 11,000 km journey from their breeding grounds above the Arctic Circle.

Festival goers will see the curlews and other shorebirds, learn about their extraordinary life cycles, their needs and the special association with their home on the shores of Port Hacking and Botany Bay.

What’s there to see or do during the Curlew Homecoming?

See Live Shorebirds

Visit our pop-up shorebird observation marquee at Bonnie Vale Campground (2 Seabreeze Lane, Royal National Park) from 8 am to 11:30 am. Visitors can use our telescopes and binoculars to see Critically Endangered Far Eastern Curlews and other shorebirds roosting nearby on Deeban Spit at high tide. At hand will be volunteer birding experts to answer questions about shorebirds and ongoing efforts to protect them in Port Hacking and Botany Bay. Stay a while and have a chat and a complementary cuppa. To receive detailed information on how to find us, use the booking button on the right to register your interest in attending. It’s free!

Take a Guided Bird Walk

Book your place to join a guided bird walk from Bonnie Vale to Maianbar and back to see both shorebirds and woodland birds of Port Hacking and the Royal National Park. There’ll be 4 one-hour guided bird walks on the day starting respectively at 8 am, 9 am, 10 am and 11 am – it’s free to join in but numbers are limited, so you must book in advance using the booking button on the right.

Activities at the Bundeena Community Centre, which is a 15-minute walk from Bonnie Vale, start from 10:30 am and continue through until 2:30pm with events and displays especially for children and families. There’ll be static displays and video screenings offering information about the work of BirdLife Australia and the Sutherland Shire Environment Centre as well as the following displays and activities designed especially for kids:

• Meet the birds who fly super long distances every year. Why do they do this? Why do they have different shaped beaks? What do they eat when they get here?

• See and touch amazing bird wings and tails: Is your arm as long as a sea-eagle’s wing? How big is a Far Eastern Curlew?

• Touch and hold bird bones, skulls and feet: Does it belong to a bird?

• Feel bird feathers of all kinds: Look up close at feathers with a digital microscope - can you find the hidden colours?

• Hear a Story about Birds: Listen to A Shorebird Flying Adventure, a story by Milly Foreman as she flies her microlight plane to the Arctic and back.

• Help assemble a "Wall of Wings": Kids and adults can assemble the Bundeena version of this flexible travelling environmental artwork. It features prints of different shorebirds flying or standing, all waiting to join their flocks. With guidance, create this unique composition by attaching bird prints individually to vertical panels.

• Make a curlew stick puppet. Choose a flying or standing curlew, colour and decorate it (with sparkles). Add a stick and you have your very own puppet!

• Draw your own shorebirds to take home and display.

• Fold some bird origami – Can you make a pelican or a penguin from a sheet of paper? We’ll show you how.

• The Great Knot Journey - Play the board game and learn about this amazingly well travelled little bird.

And for those who like to eat …

Enjoy a free lunch at the Bundeena Community Centre from 11am to 12:30pm with a “Sausage Sizzle Meal Ticket” – book your free ticket in advance here or pay a $2 donation on the day. With your meal, get a barista brewed cup of coffee, a cup of tea or a soft drink for a $1 donation and listen to the live entertainment,

Hear the buzz about shorebird protection in southern Sydney

Sit in with your coffee or tea from 12:30pm to 2pm to hear about what's being done to protect the natural environment of Botany Bay and Port Hacking. There’ll be some eminent locals attending and a panel discussion about pro-nature achievements in the district in 2026 and an opportunity to ask questions of the panellists.

Join a cultural walk on the tidal flats of Deeban Spit from 2:30-4:30pm – This fascinating free tour will be led by a local Indigenous elder. Learn how the traditional owners used the natural resources of the area, how they cared for the land and waters, what the place meant to them spiritually, visitors from other clans, terminology for the shorebirds and other wildlife. As numbers are limited, you must book in advance using the button on the right.

See the Curlew Homecoming Program in PDF at this LINK.

For further information about the Curlew Homecoming or if you want to volunteer to assist in supporting it on the day, contact the organisers by email at southernnsw@birdlife.org.au