Federally threatened Piping plover  (photo: Paul Fusco)

Ruddy turnstones

Pectoral sandpiper  (photo: Paul Fusco)
 
 
 
 
 
 

- general -
Migratory shorebirds use the region’s marine, estuarine, and freshwater habitats for breeding, summering, and wintering, as well as northward migration in the spring and southward migration in the fall. There are about 30 species of shorebirds, such as plovers, sandpipers, avocets, and oystercatchers, that rely on the region for food and shelter as they pass through on their annual migration.

*  Just under 70% of the Atlantic Coast breeding population of the federally threatened piping plover nests on beaches in the Southern New England - New York Bight project area.
 

- threats -
The greatest threats to migrating shorebirds are loss and degradation of coastal habitats, loss of food resources, and human disturbance.  Because large numbers of shorebirds are concentrated in just a few areas during migration, injury of these key areas can devastate their populations.
 

- details -
Shorebirds show a strong affinity for wetlands, and typically swarm the beaches, marshes, and tidal flats during migration.  Large numbers of migratory shorebirds travel great distances between breeding and wintering grounds and concentrate in small stopover areas with seasonally-abundant food resources to accumulate energy reserves for continuing their long-distance flights. 

Shorebirds migrate through the Northeast almost all year round, with northward migration beginning in late winter and lasting through June, and southward migration beginning in late June with peaks in late July and lasting into the fall.  Shorebirds rely on a mosaic of shallow coastal or freshwater wetlands and adjacent upland areas.  Foraging habitats include beaches, mudflats, sandflats, salt marshes, impoundments, flooded agricultural fields, and grasslands.  In coastal areas, preferred food items include macroinvertebrates such as polychaete worms, crustaceans, mollusks, or insects.  Roosting habitats, usually used at night or during high tide periods when primary feeding areas are not accessible, include salt marshes, sandflats and beaches above the tide line, and sparsely vegetated islands free of predators. 

Delaware Bay, at the southern end of the New York Bight, is the largest spring shorebird staging area on the east coast of the United States, and one of the top ten sites in the Western Hemisphere.  This site is recognized as globally important in the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network.  Six species make up 95% of the birds staging in Delaware Bay in the spring:  semipalmated sandpiper (Calidris pusilla), red knot (C. canutus), ruddy turnstone (Arenaria interpres), and sanderling (Calidris alba), with lesser numbers of dunlin (C. alpina) and short-billed dowitcher (Limnodromus griseus). 

Analyses of International Shorebird Survey (ISS) data have indicated recent declines in several species of shorebirds, including black-bellied plover (Pluvialis squatarola), whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus), red knot (Calidris canutus), sanderling (Calidris alba), semipalmated sandpiper (Calidris pusilla), least sandpiper (Calidris minutilla), and short-billed dowitcher (Limnodromus griseus).