The Fog Bay and Finniss River Floodplains comprise the

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 ...

of the lower reaches of the Finniss River with the adjoining

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 Fog Bay in 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 ...

. It is an important site for

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 ...

Description

The site lies on the north-western coast of the Northern Territory, some south-west of Darwin. The floodplain is mainly seasonally inundated paperbark and

sedge The Cyperaceae () are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as wikt:sedge, sedges. The family (biology), family is large; botanists have species description, described some 5,500 known species in about 90 ...

swamps. The bay is dominated by sand, salt and mudflats with a shoreline of

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...

s and mangrove-lined channels,

grass Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and spe ...

dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...

s and patches of samphire.BirdLife International. (2011). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Fog Bay and Finniss River Floodplains. Downloaded from on 20 December 2011

Fog Bay

Fog Bay is a

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

of the Australian coast, located approximately south-west of

Darwin, Northern Territory Darwin ( Larrakia: ') is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. The city has nearly 53% of the Northern Territory's population, with 139,902 at the 2021 census. It is the smallest, wettest, and most northerly of the Australi ...

. The shallow bay is approximately wide and extends from Native Point at its north-east end to Point Jenny to the south-west. The town of Dundee Beach is at the north-east end of the bay. The coastline includes the mouth of the Finniss River, which enters around the middle of the bay. The coast north of the mouth is mostly sandy flats, whereas south of the Finnis the coastline is made up of

mud flats backed by mangroves. The Fog Bay and Finniss River Floodplains have been identified as an Important Bird Area.

Birds

The site has 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 ...

. The floodplain supports over 1% of the world populations

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 ...

and

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. The mudflats of Fog Bay, extending from Point Jenny to Stingray Head, support over 1% of the world populations 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 and

grey-tailed tattler The grey-tailed tattler (''Tringa brevipes'', formerly ''Heteroscelus brevipes''Banks, Richard C.; Cicero, Carla; Dunn, Jon L.; Kratter, Andrew W.; Rasmussen, Pamela C.; Remsen, J. V. Jr.; Rising, James D. & Stotz, Douglas F. (2006):Forty-seventh ...

s, among the maximum of 35,000

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, recorded. Other waders for which the site is at least sometimes important include

black-tailed godwit The black-tailed godwit (''Limosa limosa'') is a large, long-legged, long-billed shorebird first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. It is a member of the godwit genus, '' Limosa''. There are four subspecies, all with orange head, neck and ches ...

s, greaters and lesser sand plovers,

grey plover The grey plover or black-bellied plover (''Pluvialis squatarola'') is a large plover breeding in Arctic regions. It is a long-distance migrant, with a nearly worldwide coastal distribution when not breeding. Taxonomy The grey plover was forma ...

Terek sandpiper The Terek sandpiper (''Xenus cinereus'') is a small migratory Palearctic 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 foun ...

s, and Far Eastern curlews. Other waterbirds that have been recorded in relatively large numbers include little pied and

little black cormorant The little black cormorant (''Phalacrocorax sulcirostris'') is a member of the cormorant family of seabirds. It is common in smaller rivers and lakes throughout most areas of Australia and northern New Zealand, where it is known as the little bla ...

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 ...

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 ...

glossy Gloss is an optical property which indicates how well a surface reflects light in a specular (mirror-like) direction. It is one of the important parameters that are used to describe the visual appearance of an object. Other categories of visual a ...

, straw-necked and

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,

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 ...

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, plumed and

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 ...

s, grey teals,

Pacific black duck The Pacific black duck (''Anas superciliosa''), commonly known as the PBD, is a dabbling duck found in much of Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and many islands in the southwestern Pacific, reaching to the Caroline Islands in the no ...

s, and

brolga The brolga (''Antigone rubicunda''), formerly known as the native companion, is a bird in the crane (bird), crane family. It has also been given the name Australian crane, a term coined in 1865 by well-known ornithology, ornithologist John Gou ...

References

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