Tracking study to identify the migration strategies of two very closely related shorebird species, the Curlew sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea) and the Red-necked stint (Calidris ruficollis), migrating from the same non-breeding site in Australia to similar breeding sites in the high Russian Arctic.
Based on 13 Curlew sandpiper and 16 Red-necked stint tracks from light-level geolocator tags, individual Curlew sandpipers make use of fewer stopover areas along the flyway compared to Red-necked stints. Furthermore, and notably 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, that 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.
GBIF url: https://www.gbif.org/dataset/b3a9b8c0-8a38-4c9e-87d1-e74801e24e73
Homepage: https://www.datarepository.movebank.org/handle/10255/move.1235
Citation: Lisovski S, Gosbell K, Minton C, Klaassen M. (2020) Migration strategy as an indicator of resilience to change in two shorebird species with contrasting population trajectories. J Anim Ecol. doi:10.1111/1365-2656.13393 accessed via GBIF.org on 2025-12-17. accessed via GBIF.org on 2026-02-12.