Red knots breed in high Arctic tundra and winter on UK estuaries — climate change is disrupting breeding timing and reducing chick survival, with welfare consequences across their flyway.
Red knot welfare across their flyway faces climate-driven mismatch problems. In the Arctic, chick hatching is no longer synchronised with peak insect emergence due to differential warming rates. Chicks without adequate invertebrate food have poor survival and fledgling condition. The welfare consequence flows through to wintering survival as birds arrive with lower fat reserves. UK estuarine conservation — protecting mudflat invertebrate communities — maintains the winter foraging base that allows knots to survive in adequate condition to attempt breeding.