Shorebirds including knots, sandpipers, and godwits make extraordinary non-stop migratory flights requiring specific staging sites with abundant food, making stopover habitat protection critical for welfare.
Shorebirds arriving at degraded staging sites unable to find adequate food face starvation stress and must decide whether to continue migration in poor condition — with consequent high mortality risk — or attempt to recover on inadequate food resources. The welfare of individual birds during stopover directly determines their survival probability for the entire migration. Protecting intertidal staging sites, regulating horseshoe crab harvest near shorebird staging areas, and restoring Yellow Sea mudflats are among the most impactful welfare interventions for migratory shorebirds.