Tracking Red-necked stints (Calidris ruficollis) and Curlew sandpipers (Calidris ferruginea) along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF)

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.