News Release

What we learned from 57 years of Dunlin banding

A banded Dunlin.

Manomet/Brad Winn

News Release Date: September 30, 2020

Contact: David Payer

A new study documented migration routes and overwintering areas of Dunlin (a shorebird) that nest in northern and western Alaska, including Cape Krusenstern National Monument. The study was based on 28,000 Dunlin banding records, 747 band resightings, and 71 recaptures of banded birds from 1960 to 2017. Dunlins use the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, which has more threatened and at-risk migratory waterbird species than any other flyway in the world. The breeding range of Dunlins is well known in Alaska, but their migration and winter ranges are more poorly defined. Individual Dunlins tended to return to the same overwintering locations in coastal areas of Japan, the Korean Peninsula, and China year after year. In many of these areas, coastal wetlands have been altered or lost to development, and the populations of Dunlins relying on them have declined. The authors suggest that data provided by this study identifying specific areas needed by Dunlin to successfully migrate and survive over winter can lead to targeted conservation efforts to recover and maintain the species.

For more information, see this web article and the original published paper.