World Shorebirds Day celebrated 6 September 2014 – and on 6 September forever?

The first-ever World Shorebirds Day was celebrated on 6 September 2014. From Tromsø, Norway, at 69º N latitude, to Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, at 54º S, and from London, U.K. at 0º longitude to Raglan, New Zealand at 175º E, the event was truly and almost incomprehensibly global. Between 5 and 7 September, observers counted shorebirds at over 1,000 sites (Fig. 1.), and more than half have contributed their data to the online e-Bird archive at Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. Many sites also used the occasion to engage their local human communities tolearn more about shorebirds and the conservation challenges they face.

This article explains the goals of this successful celebration.