Migratory Shorebird Welfare and Habitat

Long-distance migratory shorebirds face cascading welfare threats as key stopover habitats — particularly tidal mudflats — are lost to coastal development and sea level rise.

Key Facts

Bar-tailed godwits fly up to 11,000 km nonstop from Alaska to New Zealand in a single migration — the longest non-stop migration of any bird
Key stopover sites like the Yellow Sea provide fuel for 50 million shorebirds during migration
Yellow Sea intertidal habitat has declined by 65% since the 1950s due to land reclamation
Individual birds that cannot find adequate food at stopovers may fail to complete migration and die

Welfare Considerations

Individual shorebirds failing to fuel adequately at stopover sites experience exhaustion, muscle catabolism, and death from failure to complete migration. The welfare consequences of habitat loss fall on individual birds attempting to survive journeys of extraordinary physiological demand. Protecting stopover habitat at key sites prevents suffering for millions of individual animals on both the outbound and return legs of migration.

What You Can Do

Support BirdLife International campaigns protecting Yellow Sea and other critical shorebird stopover habitats
Donate to coastal habitat protection organizations in Australia and New Zealand that protect arrival habitat
Advocate for international agreements protecting migratory shorebird habitat at both ends of flyways
Support citizen science shorebird monitoring programs that track individual bird welfare trajectories
Engage with coastal development policy to prevent further intertidal habitat loss at critical stopover sites