Shorebird Migration: Routes, Timing, and Conservation

Shorebirds undertake some of the longest and most demanding migrations of any animal group, moving between Arctic and sub-Arctic breeding grounds and temperate or tropical wintering areas each year. These journeys depend on a chain of wetlands, tidal flats, and coastal habitats where birds must rest and refuel. This article explains the major migration routes, seasonal timing, stopover ecology, and conservation challenges facing shorebirds, with attention to what researchers and site managers can measure and manage.

The Global Flyway System

Migratory shorebirds use broad geographic corridors known as flyways. The three most significant systems for shorebirds are the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, the Americas Flyway, and the African-Eurasian Flyway. Each flyway contains breeding areas, wintering areas, and a network of stopover sites where birds land to feed and accumulate energy reserves.

The East Asian-Australasian Flyway has experienced major habitat deterioration and loss over the last century, making it a focus of conservation concern. A migration modeling framework developed to predict optimal migration strategies across five shorebird species within this flyway captured the strategies of those species and identified the changes in migrations needed to respond to habitat deterioration and climate change. Larger species with single or few major stopover sites need to establish new migration routes and strategies, while smaller species can buffer habitat loss by redistributing their stopover areas to novel or less-used sites. Comparing model predictions with empirical tracks indicates that larger species with the stronger need for adaptations continue to migrate closer to the optimal routes of the past, before habitat deterioration accelerated. This modeling framework provides a tool for conservation planning that can accommodate the future needs of migratory species 4.

The Americas support multiple flyway systems that connect Arctic breeding grounds to wintering areas in the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. Venezuela, with 150,064 square kilometers of wetlands representing 16 percent of national territory, sits across major migration routes on the southern edge of the Caribbean Sea and northern edge of South America. A review of published and grey literature, expert consultations, and fieldwork identified 27 priority sites for shorebird conservation in four main regions: Western Caribbean Coast, Eastern Caribbean Coast, Caribbean Islands, and Los Llanos. These sites comprise wintering areas and stopover sites used during migration, both southbound in autumn and northbound in spring, ranging in size from 52 to 80,000 hectares. Ten types of threats were recognized, four of which affect more than half of the sites: use of biological resources, residential and commercial development, human encroachment and disturbance, and pollution mainly from oil spills 18.

Migration Routes and Navigation

Shorebird migration routes are shaped by geography, wind patterns, food availability, and the location of suitable habitat. Research on arctic shorebirds has revealed that flight directions at high geographic and magnetic latitudes can be used to test bird orientation by celestial or geomagnetic compass systems under polar conditions. Migration patterns of arctic shorebirds, revealed by tracking radar studies during an icebreaker expedition along the Northwest Passage in 1999, support predicted sun compass trajectories but cannot be reconciled with orientation along either geographic or magnetic loxodromes. Sun compass routes are similar to great circle routes at high latitudes, showing changing geographic courses as the birds traverse longitudes and their internal clock gets out of phase with local time. These routes bring the shorebirds from high arctic Canada to the east coast of North America, from which they make transoceanic flights to South America. The observations are also consistent with a migration link between Siberia and the Beaufort Sea region by way of sun compass routes across the Arctic Ocean 9.

Individual shorebirds can show marked differences in their migration routes and timing. Longitudinal tracking studies have revealed consistent differences in the migration patterns of individuals from the same populations. A study of black-tailed godwits tracked juveniles and adults from the same breeding area on their southward and northward migrations to determine how and when individual differences arise. In juveniles, the timing of their first southward departure was related to hatch date. However, their subsequent migration routes, orientation, destination, migratory duration, and likelihood of mortality were unrelated to the year or timing of migration, or their sex. Juveniles left the Netherlands after all tracked adults, flew non-stop to West Africa more often, and incurred higher mortality rates than adults. Some juveniles also took routes and visited stopover sites far outside the well-documented adult migratory corridor, yet these juveniles were not more likely to die. The study found that juveniles exhibited different migratory patterns than adults, indicating that individual differences in migratory behavior emerge through developmental plasticity instead of being inherited 7.

Seasonal Timing of Shorebird Migration

Migration timing varies by species, population, and geographic region, but consistent seasonal patterns emerge across flyways.

Spring Migration

Spring migration is generally time-constrained because birds must reach breeding grounds early enough to secure territories and complete nesting before the brief Arctic summer ends. During long-distance spring migrations, birds may rest and refuel at numerous stopover sites while minimizing the time to reach the breeding grounds. If habitat is limited along the migration route, pre-breeding birds optimize flight range by having longer stopovers at higher quality sites compared to poorer quality sites. Stopover duration also depends on distance remaining to breeding grounds, ecological barriers, and individual characteristics 3.

A study of semipalmated sandpipers at two sites with known relative habitat quality on the northern Gulf of Mexico coast, the first land encountered after crossing the Gulf of Mexico, used automated radio telemetry to estimate stopover duration and probability of departure. Stopover duration declined with higher fuel loads at capture, as expected under a time-minimizing strategy. After accounting for fuel load, stopover duration was approximately 40 percent longer at the higher quality site. The probability of departure was strongly affected by humidity and also by tailwind and weather conditions. Birds stopping at the higher quality site had earlier apparent arrival to the breeding grounds. The Louisiana coast is an apparent stopover hub for this species, since individuals were departing to regions across the breeding range 3.

Autumn Migration

Autumn migration is typically less time-constrained than spring migration, allowing birds to move more slowly and use a wider range of sites. A study of little ringed plovers using multisensory data loggers that record time-resolved flight activity and light for positioning by geolocation tested alternative hypotheses of energy and time minimization migration. The researchers could reject the hypothesis of energy minimization based on a relationship between stopover duration and subsequent flight time as predicted for a time minimizer. They found seasonally diverging slopes between stopover and flight durations in relation to the progress of migration, which follows a time-minimizing policy if resource gradients along the migration route increase in autumn and decrease in spring. Total flight duration did not differ significantly between autumn and spring migration, although spring migration was 6 percent shorter. Overall duration of autumn migration was longer than that in spring, mainly owing to a mid-migration stop in most birds, when they likely initiated moult. Migratory flights often occurred as runs of two to seven nocturnal flights on adjacent days, which may be countering a time-minimization strategy. Other factors may influence a preference for nocturnal migration, such as avoiding flight in turbulent conditions, heat stress, and diurnal predators 10.

Regional Timing Patterns

In Bangladesh, positioned at the crossroads of the Central Asian and East Asian-Australasian Flyways, 14 years of shorebird surveys and satellite tracking investigated correlates of interspecific variation in shorebird population trends. Twelve out of 20 shorebird species studied experienced population declines in 2009 to 2023. Coastal habitat obligates such as the spoon-billed sandpiper showed the largest decreases, while several non-coastal obligate species such as the Tibetan sand plover exhibited stable or increasing trends. Migration stopover habitat emerged as the primary factor predicting population trends. The results emphasize the critical importance of previously overlooked inland stopover sites, particularly in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, where 64 percent of sites used by tracked birds are unprotected 5.

Stopover Ecology and Habitat Quality

Stopover sites are the nodes that connect the migratory network. Without adequate food and safe roosting habitat at these sites, shorebirds cannot complete their journeys.

Food Resources and Carrying Capacity

Estuarine tidal flats are vital stopover and wintering sites for migratory shorebirds. The tidal flat carrying capacity of birds depends mainly on the energy supply of the habitats and the energy demand of the birds. A pixel-based model estimated the carrying capacity of the Changjiang estuary in China and the Western Scheldt estuary in the Netherlands using Landsat 5 and 8 satellite data from 1990 to 2020 to derive the available food density and feeding time. The average carrying capacity in the Western Scheldt estuary was double that of the Changjiang estuary from 1990 to 2020, however, the Changjiang estuary exhibited greater temporal fluctuations over the past 30 years. The model-estimated average carrying capacity aligned well with locally observed shorebird data, showing stronger correlations in inter-estuarine comparisons than within individual estuaries. The dominant drivers included both human activities and natural succession, with their influence varying over time and space. The authors emphasize the need for large-scale assessments that integrate human impact analysis to develop effective shorebird protection strategies amidst future environmental risk 11.

Foraging Behavior and Habitat Selection

Shorebirds exhibit varying degrees of habitat specialization during stopover. A study of Hudsonian whimbrels used high-resolution GPS tracking data, remote sensing imagery, and focal foraging observations to measure individual habitat specialization during a month-long migratory stopover. The researchers found that whimbrels show low levels of habitat specialization and instead select habitat in proportion to its availability within their home range and its accessibility based on tidal inundation. Each habitat type has associated tradeoffs between accessibility, foraging reward, and predation risk. Flexible habitat use is likely a means to balance these tradeoffs. Fidelity at the home range scale allows individuals to develop familiarity with how to balance habitat quality tradeoffs in a dynamic environment. While this inherent behavioral flexibility could buffer Hudsonian whimbrels from the risks of environmental change, their reliance on low-lying intertidal habitats raises concerns as sea-level rise increasingly restricts the availability of their preferred foraging habitats 14.

Prey Networks

Shorebird-prey interactions across the Americas were examined using a network-based approach that constructed an interaction matrix from a systematic literature review spanning publications from 1929 to the present. The analysis, encompassing the diets of 36 migratory shorebird species across distinct biogeographic realms, revealed that shorebird-prey networks exhibit low nestedness, low connectance, and moderate modularity. These structural patterns suggest a balance between vulnerability to prey decline and potential resilience through reduced competition and disease transmission. Network structure varied more in tropical regions than in temperate zones. Contrary to expectations, prey richness did not correlate with increased morphological specialization among shorebirds, suggesting that factors beyond morphology, such as behavioral plasticity or interspecific competition, may play a greater role in shaping foraging strategies. While the observed modularity suggests some resilience during migration, climate change and anthropogenic pressures pose significant threats 16.

At a Glance: Shorebird Migration Systems

Migration Strategy and Population Resilience

Differences in migration strategy, particularly stopover-site use, may explain variations in resilience to global change among shorebird populations. A study comparing two closely related shorebird species, the curlew sandpiper and the red-necked stint, migrating from the same non-breeding site in Australia to similar breeding sites in the high Russian Arctic, aimed to explain why these two species express differential resilience to rapid changes within their flyway. Based on 13 curlew sandpiper and 16 red-necked stint tracks from light-level geolocator tags, the researchers found that individual curlew sandpipers make use of fewer stopover areas along the flyway compared to red-necked stints. During northward migration, curlew sandpipers have a higher dependency on fewer sites, both in terms of the percentage of individuals visiting key stopover sites and the relative time spent at those sites. While curlew sandpipers rely mainly on the Yellow Sea region, which has recently experienced a sharp decline in suitable habitat, red-necked stints make use of additional sites and spread their relative time en-route across sites more evenly. These results indicate that differential migration strategies may be at the basis of variations in resilience to global change 6.

Repeatability and Flexibility

Migratory species often repeat spatio-temporal patterns within their annual cycle. Although this may help to promote knowledge about local features and site quality, stereotyped behaviors may also create an ecological trap by preventing the flexibility required to adjust to environmental changes. A long-term international dataset assessed 24 spatial and temporal parameters describing the repeatability of the entire migratory cycle in 94 individuals of the near-threatened Eurasian curlew tracked for up to 7 consecutive years using high-resolution GPS tags. Twenty-two parameters show significant repeatability, with the highest repeatability for use of the same breeding and wintering sites, indicating consistent faithfulness. All migration and stopover parameters during spring migration are also significantly repeatable, with lower repeatability for autumn migration, likely related to variable breeding success. The location of migration routes varies between consecutive years, but intra-individual similarity is significantly greater than inter-individual similarity. While the potential of adaptations to long-term environmental changes needs further studies, there are indications of a potentially maladaptive behavior to short-term changes that should be carefully observed by site managers to conserve this near-threatened species 12.

Threats During Migration

Habitat Loss and Degradation

Habitat loss is the most pervasive threat to migratory shorebirds. A network method that integrates GPS tracking data and remote sensing data identified critical nodes for three shorebird species, the black-tailed godwit, Eurasian curlew, and pied avocet, in migratory networks along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. A total of 111, 37, and 81 nodes in the migratory networks were identified for the three species respectively, including 25, 13, and 16 critical nodes. Node importance was higher in the migration period than in the breeding and wintering periods. Habitat loss was observed in most stopover nodes. A total of 23 unprotected critical nodes were identified as priority conservation areas. The inclusion of sites such as Haoyao sumu forest farm and Tianjin coast into flyway site networks should be prioritized, and the habitat quality of nearby alternative nodes should be improved 15.

Offshore Wind Farms

The expansion of offshore wind farms introduces new risks for migratory shorebirds. EU member countries and the UK are currently installing numerous offshore wind farms in the Baltic and North Seas to achieve decarbonization of their energy systems. An international dataset consisting of 259 migration tracks for 143 GPS-tagged Eurasian curlews from seven European countries recorded over 6 years assessed individual response behaviors when approaching offshore wind farms in the North and Baltic Seas at two different spatial scales, up to 3.5 km and up to 30 km distance. Generalized additive mixed models revealed a significant small-scale increase in flight altitudes, which was strongest at 0 to 500 m from the wind farm and more pronounced during autumn than during spring, due to higher proportions of time spent migrating at rotor level. Four different small-scale integrated step selection models consistently detected horizontal avoidance responses in about 70 percent of approaching curlews, which was strongest at approximately 450 m from the wind farms. No distinct large-scale avoidance effects were observed on the horizontal plane. Overall, 28.8 percent of the flight tracks crossed wind farms at least once during migration. Flight altitudes within the wind farms overlapped with the rotor level to a high degree in autumn at 50 percent but to a significantly lesser extent in spring at 18.5 percent. Approximately 15.8 percent and 5.8 percent of the entire curlew population were estimated to be at increased risk during autumn and spring migration respectively 8.

Mariculture and Food Supply Interactions

Human food production systems can both support and threaten shorebird populations. In China, rising demands for seafood and land intensify pressures on coastal habitats, the most critical refueling sites for migratory shorebirds along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. A continent-wide, decade-long field investigation examined how China's extensive intertidal mariculture impacts these vulnerable shorebirds. Commercial molluscs have become an essential resource for the molluscivorous shorebirds, determining their large-scale spatial distribution and temporal population dynamics during northward migration. The study also revealed unintended declines in both molluscs and shorebirds following a conservation-motivated mariculture ban, highlighting the tragedy of the commons as a consequence of unregulated public use. This study unveils the pivotal yet unforeseen role of China's intertidal mariculture in sustaining shorebirds along the world's most threatened flyway. If this delicate balance is disrupted without viable alternative food resources for the shorebirds, a considerable part of the flyway populations will be at risk. Evidence-based policymaking and management are required to harmonize seafood production with biodiversity conservation 13.

Conservation Planning and Site Management

Identifying Priority Sites

Conservation planning for migratory shorebirds requires identifying sites that support significant proportions of flyway populations. In Venezuela, nine of 11 priority species showed maximum abundances exceeding the 1 percent threshold of the biogeographic population in at least one stopover site, with thresholds ranging from 1.1 to 19.5 percent. The study identified sites that potentially meet the criteria for nomination as Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network sites 18.

High-Tide Roost Management

A case study from a critical stopover site in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway provides lessons for optimal high-tide roost management to support shorebird conservation. High-tide roosts are essential because shorebirds cannot feed during high tide and must gather at safe resting sites. Management of these roosts requires attention to disturbance levels, predator presence, and the availability of suitable roosting substrate 17.

Ecologically Linked Habitats

Identifying shorebird conservation hotspots and restoration gaps in stopover sites requires a perspective of ecologically linked habitats. Stopover sites do not function in isolation, and conservation planning must consider how habitats within a region connect to support the full range of shorebird needs during migration 20.

Partnership Approaches

Rethinking partnerships to strengthen migratory shorebird conservation is essential because no single nation or organization can protect the full migratory cycle. International frameworks such as the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership provide mechanisms for coordinated action across range states 19.

Practical Assessment Steps for Site Managers

Site managers and researchers can apply the following steps to assess and improve shorebird habitat at stopover sites:

1. Conduct regular shorebird counts during migration seasons, recording species, numbers, and behavior. Counts should occur at consistent times relative to tide cycles to allow comparison across dates and years.

2. Map habitat availability within the site, including foraging areas and high-tide roosts. Use remote sensing imagery where ground surveys are impractical.

3. Assess food resources by sampling benthic invertebrates in foraging areas. Compare food density with the energy demands of the shorebird species present.

4. Monitor disturbance levels from human activities, including recreation, fishing, and development. Record the frequency and intensity of disturbance events.

5. Track individual movements using GPS tags or radio telemetry where feasible to identify habitat use patterns and connectivity with other sites.

6. Evaluate the effectiveness of management interventions, such as predator control, roost creation, or disturbance buffers, using before-after comparisons.

7. Share data with flyway-scale initiatives to contribute to network-level conservation planning.

Records and Measurements

Consistent record-keeping is essential for detecting changes in shorebird populations and habitat quality. Key records include:

Common Failure Patterns in Shorebird Conservation

Conservation efforts can fail for predictable reasons. Recognizing these patterns helps managers adjust strategies:

1. Focusing on breeding or wintering sites while neglecting stopover sites. Migration stopover habitat emerged as the primary factor predicting population trends in Bangladesh, emphasizing the critical importance of previously overlooked inland stopover sites 5.

2. Protecting individual sites without considering network connectivity. Habitat loss was observed in most stopover nodes, and unprotected critical nodes require inclusion into flyway site networks 15.

3. Assuming that habitat protection alone ensures food availability. The unintended declines in both molluscs and shorebirds following a conservation-motivated mariculture ban demonstrate that food supply dynamics can be complex 13.

4. Ignoring behavioral flexibility. Species with high site fidelity and stereotyped migration patterns may be less able to adjust to environmental changes 12.

5. Failing to account for species-specific migration strategies. Species that depend on few stopover sites are more vulnerable to habitat loss than species that spread their time across multiple sites 6.

Limitations of Current Knowledge

Several limitations constrain current understanding of shorebird migration and conservation:

1. Tracking data remain limited for many species and populations. Sample sizes are often small, and tracking devices can affect behavior.

2. Habitat quality assessments often rely on indirect measures. Carrying capacity models require validation with field data, and correlations between modeled and observed values are stronger in inter-estuarine comparisons than within individual estuaries 11.

3. The effects of climate change on migration timing and routes are poorly understood for most species. Modeling frameworks can predict optimal strategies but cannot fully capture the behavioral flexibility of wild birds 4.

4. Data gaps exist for large geographic regions. The region south of the Orinoco River in Venezuela, almost half of the country's land surface, lacks sufficient occurrence data for shorebirds 18.

5. The relationship between migration strategy and population resilience requires further investigation. Studies comparing closely related species provide insights but cannot establish causation 6.

Welfare and Safety Context

Shorebird research and conservation activities must consider animal welfare and human safety. Capture and handling of shorebirds for tagging requires appropriate permits and training. Tracking devices must be sized to minimize effects on flight performance and behavior. Researchers should follow institutional animal care protocols and national wildlife regulations.

Site managers should also consider human safety when designing public access to shorebird habitats. Boardwalks and viewing platforms can reduce disturbance while providing safe observation opportunities. Signs and educational materials can help visitors understand why they should keep distance from roosting and feeding birds.

Professional Escalation Criteria

Site managers and researchers should seek expert assistance when:

1. Shorebird counts show unexplained declines of more than 20 percent over consecutive years at a site.

2. Food resources decline sharply without an obvious cause, such as pollution events or habitat modification.

3. Disturbance levels increase substantially due to new development, recreation patterns, or changes in site access.

4. Tracking data reveal that birds are using sites outside established protected areas.

5. Habitat loss or degradation affects critical nodes identified through network analysis.

6. Management interventions produce unexpected outcomes, such as declines in both target and non-target species.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the longest shorebird migration?

The longest shorebird migrations occur among species that breed in the Arctic and winter in the Southern Hemisphere. Bar-tailed godwits are known for non-stop flights across the Pacific Ocean, and Arctic terns, while not a shorebird, make the longest migrations of any bird. Among shorebirds, species such as the red knot and curlew sandpiper travel from Arctic breeding grounds to wintering areas in Australia, New Zealand, South America, and southern Africa, covering distances of 15,000 to 20,000 kilometers or more in a single annual cycle.

When does shorebird migration season occur?

Shorebird migration occurs twice each year. Spring migration, also called northward migration, typically occurs from March through June as birds move from wintering areas to breeding grounds. Autumn migration, also called southward migration, typically occurs from July through November as birds and their young return to wintering areas. Timing varies by species, latitude, and flyway. In the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, northward migration peaks around April and May, while southward migration peaks from August through October.

What are the major shorebird migration flyways?

The major shorebird flyways are the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, the Americas Flyway, and the African-Eurasian Flyway. The East Asian-Australasian Flyway connects Arctic Russia and Alaska to Southeast Asia and Australia. The Americas Flyway connects Arctic Canada and Alaska to the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. The African-Eurasian Flyway connects Arctic Europe and Siberia to West Africa and southern Africa. Bangladesh sits at the crossroads of the Central Asian and East Asian-Australasian Flyways 5.

Why are stopover sites important for shorebirds?

Stopover sites provide food and resting habitat that shorebirds need to complete their migrations. During long-distance spring migrations, birds may rest and refuel at numerous stopover sites while minimizing the time to reach the breeding grounds. If habitat is limited along the migration route, pre-breeding birds optimize flight range by having longer stopovers at higher quality sites compared to poorer quality sites 3. Migration stopover habitat emerged as the primary factor predicting population trends in a 14-year study of shorebirds in Bangladesh 5.

How do shorebirds navigate during migration?

Shorebirds use multiple cues for navigation, including the sun, stars, geomagnetic fields, and landscape features. Research on arctic shorebirds supports predicted sun compass trajectories at high latitudes, with routes similar to great circle routes that show changing geographic courses as birds traverse longitudes 9. Individual birds may also learn routes through experience, as juvenile black-tailed godwits exhibited different migratory patterns than adults and some juveniles took routes far outside the adult migratory corridor 7.

What are the main threats to migratory shorebirds?

The main threats include habitat loss and degradation, pollution, hunting, disturbance, and climate change. Coastal habitat obligates such as the spoon-billed sandpiper showed the largest decreases in Bangladesh, while non-coastal obligate species exhibited stable or increasing trends 5. Offshore wind farms pose collision and barrier risks, with approximately 15.8 percent and 5.8 percent of the Eurasian curlew population estimated to be at increased risk during autumn and spring migration respectively 8.

How can conservation efforts protect migratory shorebirds?

Conservation efforts should protect breeding, wintering, and stopover sites across the full migratory network. Identifying critical nodes in migration networks and prioritizing unprotected sites for inclusion in flyway site networks is essential 15. International partnerships and coordinated management across range states are necessary because shorebirds cross national boundaries during migration 19. Site managers should monitor shorebird populations, food resources, and disturbance levels to guide adaptive management.

How does climate change affect shorebird migration?

Climate change affects shorebirds through habitat loss, shifts in food availability, and changes in weather patterns that influence migration timing and success. Sea-level rise increasingly restricts the availability of preferred foraging habitats for species that rely on low-lying intertidal areas 14. Modeling frameworks predict that larger shorebird species with single or few major stopover sites need to establish new migration routes and strategies, while smaller species can buffer habitat loss by redistributing their stopover areas to novel or less

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References and Further Reading

• NCBI Literature Resources. National Center for Biotechnology Information.
• PubMed. National Library of Medicine.
• Migration tactics and connectivity of a Nearctic-Neotropical migratory shorebird.. The Journal of animal ecology, 2022.
• Predicting resilience of migratory birds to environmental change.. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2024.
• Interspecific variation in shorebird population trends in relation to migration stopover habitat.. Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2026.
• Migration strategy as an indicator of resilience to change in two shorebird species with contrasting population trajectories.. The Journal of animal ecology, 2021.
• Age-dependent timing and routes demonstrate developmental plasticity in a long-distance migratory bird.. The Journal of animal ecology, 2022.
• Behavioral responses to offshore windfarms during migration of a declining shorebird species revealed by GPS-telemetry.. Journal of environmental management, 2023.
• Migration along orthodromic sun compass routes by arctic birds.. Science (New York, N.Y.), 2001.
• Seasonal patterns and processes of migration in a long-distance migratory bird: energy or time minimization?. Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2024.
• Estimating the carrying capacity of tidal flats for migratory shorebirds: A comparison between the Changjiang and Western Scheldt estuaries from 1990 to 2020.. 2026.
• High annual-cycle repeatability suggests low flexibility to environmental changes in a near-threatened migratory shorebird.. 2026.
• China's intertidal mariculture as an unexpected lifeline sustaining the world's most threatened shorebird flyway.. 2025.
• Specializing in order to generalize: fidelity to foraging areas is modulated by flexible fine-scale habitat use in Hudsonian Whimbrel (Numenius hudsonicus).. 2026.
• Identification and conservation of critical nodes for shorebirds based on migration network perspective.. 2025.
• American shorebird-prey network patterns: Geographic variation in non-breeding habitats. 2025.
• A case study from a critical stopover site in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway provides lessons for optimal high-tide roost management to support shorebird conservation. Biological Conservation, 2025.
• Shorebird conservation in Venezuela: status, threats and priorities. Wader Study, 2025.
• Rethinking partnerships to strengthen migratory shorebird conservation. Wader Study, 2025.
• Identifying shorebird conservation hotspots and restoration gaps in stopover sites: a perspective of ‘ecologically linked’ habitats. Global Ecology and Conservation, 2023.
• The Ecological Crisis and the Sustainability of Migratory Shorebirds. Sustainable Development Goals Series, 2025.
• Host Migration and Size Do Not Influence the Prevalence of Most Chewing Lice (Phthiraptera: Amblycera and Ischnocera) on Shorebirds (Aves: Charadriiformes) across the World. Diversity, 2023.

This article is educational and does not replace institutional policy, professional advice, or applicable safety and regulatory requirements.