• • Birds making long flights over water • • Shorebirds are solitary nesters, and
• • Like airline pilots, migrating birds • • Bird banding, today done worldwide,
generally fly at much higher altitudes
than those who opt for routes over
land.
choose their airspeed based on wind
speed, wind direction, and weather.
• • Red knots are called Moonbirds
in honor of one intrepid flyer that
scientists were able to track over
the course of 20 years, flying the
equivalent of a trip to the moon and
halfway back. Phillip Hoose tells
the story in Moonbird: A Year on the
Wind with the Great Survivor B95, a
fascinating children’s book.
• • To survive, shorebirds must have
healthy habitat in each of three very
different locations where they spend
part of every year:
1) Northern breeding grounds;
2) Southern non-breeding grounds
(sometimes called wintering areas);
3) Stopover locations strategically
located along migration routes
(Kiawah is an important stopover
location)
• • Because they depend heavily on the
same coastal regions that attract
human development, shorebirds
have experienced greater declines in
population than other bird groups.
• • If undernourished due to inadequate
food at a stopover, migrators are
likely to die before reaching their
destination. If they are lucky enough
to limp into their northern breeding
grounds, they are too weak to
produce strong offspring, and the
next generation suffers.
• • The biggest threats to shorebird
populations are man-made.
• • In preparation for migration,
shorebirds bulk up, adding up to 100
percent of their body weight. Imagine
how much you would have to eat to
double your weight!
SUMMER/FALL 2017 • VOLUME 38
the nests tend to be shallow scrapes
on the ground, often in sand, making
them vulnerable to predation.
remains the best way to gather large
quantities of data. Radio telemetry
and radar are adding data confirming
migration routes and important
stopover spots. The sum of all this is
helping scientists to gradually unravel
the mysteries of bird migration.
• • The smallest of all shorebirds is the
least sandpiper, weighing about one
ounce and only slightly larger than
a sparrow. After breeding in the
Canadian tundra, this mighty midget
migrates up to 2,000 miles, much of
it non-stop over water, to winter in
the southern U.S. and northern South
America. (See photo, middle-right.)
• • Groups of shorebirds that rise and
fly as one are engaging in a survival
technique much as fish who move as
a school to appear more formidable
to predators.
• • Shorebirds are considered important
indicator species for us, essentially
“canaries in the coalmine.” What
adversely affects them will eventually
be bad for us. NK
* Comparison courtesy of field biologist
blogger Ann McElhatton
http://beachchairscientist.com
Similar comparisons made by
Smithsonian National Zoo and
Conservation Institute.
To learn more about shorebirds and
migration:
• • South Carolina Department of
Natural Resources
• • United States Fish and Wildlife
Service
• • Smithsonian National Zoo and
Conservation Biology Institute
• • Cornell Lab of Ornithology
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