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.

本追踪研究旨在明确两种亲缘关系极近的滨鸟物种——大滨鹬（Calidris ferruginea，Curlew sandpiper）与红颈滨鹬（Calidris ruficollis，Red-necked stint）的迁徙策略：二者均从澳大利亚的同一非繁殖地出发，前往俄罗斯北极高纬度区域的相似繁殖地。
本研究基于13只大滨鹬与16只红颈滨鹬的光感地理定位标签（light-level geolocator tags）追踪数据，结果显示：相较于红颈滨鹬，大滨鹬在迁徙通道上利用的停歇地数量更少。尤为值得关注的是，在北迁过程中，大滨鹬对少数关键停歇地的依赖程度更高——无论是到访该类站点的个体占比，还是在这些站点停留的相对时长均是如此。大滨鹬主要依赖黄海区域，而该区域近期适宜栖息地正经历急剧缩减；与之相对，红颈滨鹬则会利用更多额外停歇地，并将迁徙途中的停留时间更均匀地分配至各站点。