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Six Migratory Shorebirds Were Linked to Habitat Complexes Beyond Tidal Flats

Greater Sand-Plover on coastal habitat at Bakkhali, West Bengal, India
Research · Ecology

Six migratory shorebirds along the East Asian–Australasian Flyway were associated not only with tidal flats themselves, but also with the wider landscape around them. Nearby seasonal wetlands, the amount and arrangement of tidal-flat habitat and the diversity of surrounding land cover all helped identify more suitable non-breeding areas.

The study included Eurasian Curlew (Numenius arquata), Bar-tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponica), Great Knot (Calidris tenuirostris), Common Greenshank (Tringa nebularia), Black-bellied Plover (Pluvialis squatarola) and Greater Sand-Plover (Anarhynchus leschenaultii). The species did not respond to the surrounding landscape in exactly the same way.

The same tidal flat was not equally suitable in every landscape

The researchers used eBird records from the 2021–2023 non-breeding seasons and compared habitat conditions at the observation point with the landscape within three kilometres. Including this wider context improved habitat predictions for most of the six species.

Across species, important factors included distance to tidal flats, how much tidal-flat habitat surrounded a site, how fragmented it was, proximity to seasonal inland wetlands, land-cover diversity and elevation. In other words, the ecological value of a tidal flat depended partly on what else was available nearby.

The strongest relationships also differed between species. Common Greenshank was particularly associated with greater land-cover diversity and proximity to seasonal inland wetlands. Eurasian Curlew responded more strongly to the proportion of tidal-flat habitat in the surrounding landscape. A single description of “good shorebird habitat” therefore did not fit all six species.

Tidal flats and nearby wetlands formed habitat complexes

Areas with high predicted suitability often combined tidal flats with nearby seasonal wetlands. Tidal flats provide important feeding areas, while other wetlands can offer additional feeding opportunities or places to rest when intertidal areas are submerged.

This points toward shorebirds using connected habitat complexes rather than isolated patches. A tidal flat can be valuable partly because of the wetlands, roosting areas and other habitats around it, and those surrounding resources can differ in importance among species.

Suitable habitat did not necessarily hold more birds

The researchers also compared predicted habitat suitability with observed abundance. The relationships were generally positive but weak, reaching only about 0.4 at their strongest. A place identified as highly suitable therefore did not necessarily contain proportionally more birds.

Local numbers depend on more than the habitat variables represented in the models. The authors point to factors such as prey availability and competition, while eBird counts are also influenced by imperfect detection and uneven survey effort. The results are therefore better interpreted as broad maps of potentially suitable habitat than as forecasts of local flock size.

The main ecological message is that migratory shorebirds can depend on more than the patch where they are observed. For these six species, the surrounding mosaic of tidal flats, seasonal wetlands and other land cover contributed to what made a non-breeding landscape suitable.

Sources and image credit

  1. Wen, K., & Jiang, A. (2026). Incorporating landscape context into species distribution models improves predictions for migratory shorebirds. Communications Earth & Environment.Primary open-access Article in Press published 25 September 2026. Compared conventional and landscape-context species distribution models for six migratory shorebirds across the coastal East Asian–Australasian Flyway using filtered eBird records from the 2021–2023 non-breeding seasons. Three-kilometre landscape context improved predictive performance for most species; suitability-abundance relationships remained weak, and the authors caution against site-specific interpretation without further validation.

Image: Greater Sand-Plover (Anarhynchus leschenaultii), one of the six shorebird species in the study, at Bakkhali, West Bengal, India, 17 January 2025. Photo: Tisha Mukherjee / Wikimedia Commons. Representative image; not a study observation. · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

About this content: This story was produced with AI assistance within an editorial workflow developed by Wildlife Vagabond. Editorial responsibility remains with Wildlife Vagabond.How AI is used

Ecology

SPECIES IN THIS STORY

Species in this story

Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata Explore species Common Greenshank Tringa nebularia Explore species

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