News

We are happy to announce the latest winner of the IWSG Small Projects Grant, Juan Andres Milicich. In a very strong field of applications, we thought thi stood out. His project “Unveiling Migration Patterns: A First Insight into the Breeding and Wintering Movements of the Andean Lapwing Vanellus resplendens in Northern Argentina” aims to provide an initial description of several life history strategies of Andean Lapwing, a poorly known shorebird distributed along the Andes of South America. This project hope to learn about their altitudinal migration and breeding and wintering distribution range through the deployment of GPS devices. Congratulations to Juan! [caption id="attachment_19427" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Left- Andean Lapwing, 18 Apr. 2025, Campo Alegre, ©Fabricio C. Gorleri. Right- 29 Sep. 2020, Campo Alegre, ©Juan I. Areta[/caption]   The call for the next round of IWSG Small Project Grants opens 1st August 2025.   The IWSG Small Project Grant Committee Birgita Hansen, Nils Warnock, Yahkat Barshep, Jannik Hansen.   Featured picture: Andean Lapwing, 6 March 2012, Cotopaxy National Park, Ecuador. ©Sergey Pisarevskiy.

The 2025 IWSG annual conference will be taking place from 26-29 September in Groningen, netherlands. Registration and abstract submissions will open on 15 May. Deadline to submit an abstract & registration is 1 July. There is a limit to the number of participants so don't miss to register asap! Visit the website to find out more about the upcoming conference: [embed]https://www.waderstudygroup.org/conferences/2025-groningen-netherlands/[/embed]   Featured image: Colour-ringed Black-tailed Godwit, The Netherlands (© Simon Gillings).

On behalf of the 2025 IWSG conference organizing team.

We are now accepting workshop proposals for the upcoming conference ! If you have an idea for a workshop, we would love to hear from you. Workshops can focus on anything related to waders; methodologic tools, management discussions, societal engagement or any other relevant topic. The workshops will take place Friday 26th of September. If you are interested in hosting a workshop, please submit a short abstract or description of your proposed workshop by April 1st to iwsg.conference.2025@gmail.com. This should include the workshop’s topic, the expected duration, objectives, and any relevant details. Also mention any additional budget that might be needed to cover workshop costs.

  Featured image: Redshank, Tringa totanus ©Antoine Dusard.

The IWSG Annual Conference will be held from 26-29 September 2025 in Groningen, the Netherlands. Applications are now open for IWSG conference grants to support delegates from low-income countries. Eligible applicants can receive up to €800 to help cover conference registration, travel, and accommodation costs. A total of 12 grants will be awarded — 6 for West African applicants and 6 for other low-income country applicants.   All information to apply and application form are available on the conference webpage: [embed]https://www.waderstudygroup.org/conferences/2025-groningen-netherlands/#7[/embed]  

26 September — 29 September 2025

Dear IWSG Members, We hope this message finds you well. We are reaching out to seek your support in an important research initiative focusing on the migration strategies and wintering behaviours of waders in the Western Indian Ocean region. The islands of the Western Indian Ocean are at the southern limit of the West Asia – East Africa Flyway. These islands host diverse assemblages of palearctic waders, yet, compared to other flyways, they remain among the least studied and least understood. To fill this knowledge gap, the research team at UMR ENTROPIE (Université de La Réunion) has launched a project funded by the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) dedicated to tracking waders in this region. As part of this initiative, we have deployed six Ornitela 3G GPS devices to track whimbrels across La Réunion and Mayotte, with plans to expand our study to Madagascar, which hosts an even greater number of waders. However, our ability to continue this research is challenged by the fact that Ornitela has ceased the production of 3G GPS devices due to the global transition to 4G and 5G networks. Unfortunately, most countries along our study flyway still rely on 3G, making these devices crucial for our work. How can you help? If you or any colleagues have unused Ornitela 3G GPS units that are no longer usable in your study areas due to the discontinuation of 3G networks, we would be deeply grateful if you could consider donating or selling them to us at a friendly price. Acquiring additional GPS devices would significantly enhance our capacity to track more birds and improve our understanding of wader migration in this understudied region. If you are interested in contributing, please feel free to contact me via email: florinah.razafimandimby@univ-reunion.fr. Alternatively, you can send devices directly to the following address: Razafimandimby Harivavikoa Florinah UMR ENTROPIE: "Unité Mixte de Recherche – Écologie Tropicale des Océans Pacifiques et Indien" Université de La Réunion 15 Avenue René Cassin, CS 92003 97744 Saint Denis Cedex 9 Île de La Réunion, France Phone: +262692707229 We also encourage you to share this request with any colleagues who might be able to assist. Your support would be invaluable in helping us advance this research and contribute to a better understanding of wader migration in the Western Indian Ocean region. Thank you in advance for your generosity and support! Best regards, Florinah Razafimandimby PhD Student, Université de La Réunion On behalf of my co-supervisors Matthieu Le Corre and Audrey Jaeger

  Featured image: Numenius phaeopus. ©Gertjan van Noord

by Deborah Buehler originally published in Wader Study 131(2) Imagine a place where the wind feels like a hair dryer – hot and dry. A place where faces are covered to protect against sand and sun. Now imagine a coastline, the sea brilliant blue and separated from salt flats and desert by a low line of dunes. And at the interface of land and sea, shallows and intertidal flats covered with birds. This is Banc d’Arguin, Mauritania. Banc d’Arguin is one link in a chain of important habitats that migratory shorebirds depend on for their survival. It is part of the East Atlantic Flyway, one of eight major migratory routes used by birds to move between breeding and wintering grounds. In human terms, a flyway is like a string of connecting flights. A problem early in the itinerary (say an outage that shuts down check-in) could cause a series of delays and the potential of missing the purpose of the travel (say a wedding or a funeral). It is similar for the birds, but with much higher stakes. Migratory birds from the north use Banc d’Arguin as a crucial non-breeding site while resident waterbirds and migrants from the south use the area for breeding. In 1973, during a British expedition, recoveries of ringed shorebirds and terns began to establish the significance of the area and its connectivity with coastal wetlands in Europe and with tundra breeding grounds beyond. Banc d’Arguin is now recognized as a site of international importance and the entire area was designated as a National Park by the Mauritanian government in 1976. The monitoring of waterbird populations in Parc National du Banc d’Arguin (PNBA) is also decades old with the first shorebird counts conducted in January/February 1980 and six further winter counts conducted in 1997, 2000, 2001, 2006, 2014 and 2017¹. Additionally, teams from the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) have conducted winter counts within the Iwik region of PNBA every year since December 2003. In this issue of Wader Study, El-Hacen and colleagues report on these two decades of annual monitoring complementing and updating larger-scale studies on long-term waterbird population trends². From December 2003 onward, the researchers conducted counts, after high spring tide in the last week of November, or in December or January. Counts were performed on a single day 1–2 hours before the predicted high tide and usually on a day when high tide fell in the early afternoon to standardize tide height and time of day as much as possible. The study area around the village of Iwik was subdivided into six counting units that covered all the roost sites (see Fig. 1 in the paper) and teams of one to two people covered each of the six units in the study area. [caption id="attachment_18558" align="aligncenter" width="699"] Shorebirds and waterbirds on intertidal flats with the village of Iwik in the background (photo: Jan van de Kam).[/caption] The Iwik region supports different waterbird groups: shellfish-eating shorebirds that breed to the north and spend the non-breeding season in PNBA, fish-eating waterbirds that breed in PNBA and are either resident or spend the non-breeding season to the south, and finally gulls and terns. The researchers analysed overall trends for these three waterbird groups and also selected the most common species within each group to assess individual trends over time (eight shorebird species, six species of large-bodied waterbirds, and six gull and tern species). In the analyses, they combined species that were difficult to distinguish in the field (e.g., small herons). To statistically analyze waterbird numbers over time, El Hacen and colleagues used generalized additive models (GAMs), which can estimate non-linear trends, identify periods and magnitudes of change, and account for the fact that the numbers one year are affected by what they were the year before (lack of independence among consecutive counts). Over two decades of study, the researchers found that waterbird numbers decreased from 120,000 to 80,000 birds in the Iwik study area. The models indicated that the decreases were non-linear and not the same across waterbird types. Shorebirds, which made up 90% of total waterbirds, declined in the first half of the study period from 2003 to 2012 and then stabilized from 2013 to 2023. Large-bodied waterbird numbers (cormorants, herons, spoonbills, flamingos and pelicans) were stable until 2012, increased to 2019 and then decreased from 2020–2023. Gull and tern numbers remained stable across both decades with no statistically significant variation. Looking at trends in the eight most common shorebirds, Red Knot Calidris canutus numbers followed the general trend, first decreasing, then stabilising after just over a decade. The decline of Red Knots in the Iwik area from 2003 to 2010 has been explained by decreases in the density of their preferred bivalve prey, which led the birds to consume a somewhat toxic alternative³. Bar-tailed Godwit numbers dropped continuously across the study period from 2003 to 2016, mirroring declines elsewhere in the flyway suggesting that factors beyond the Banc d’Arguin region, including climate change related shifts in food peaks in the Arctic during the breeding season, contributed to the decline. On the other hand, Whimbrels showed a steady and significant local increase indicating that conditions are favourable for Whimbrels in PNBA, at least in comparison to the rest of the flyway. The remaining five most common shorebird species showed year-to-year variations, but no statistically significant trends (Common Ringed Plover Charadrius hiaticula, Grey Plover Pluvialis squatarola, Dunlin Calidris alpina, Sanderling Calidris alba and Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata). Amongst the six most common locally breeding waterbirds, three groups showed significant trends. Reed Cormorants Microcarbo africanus and small herons increased over the entire study period. Grey Heron Ardea cinerea monicae numbers increased strongly between 2003 and 2019, but then declined until the end of the study period. Other large waterbird species such as White-breasted Cormorant Phalacrocorax lucidus, Eurasian Spoonbill Platalea leucorodia, and Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus roseus did not show statistically significant treads over the two decades, nor did the six most common species of gulls and terns. However apparent declines over the last 2–3 years may be ecologically, if not statistically, significant. For example, recent declines of the endemic subspecies of Grey Heron, Caspian Tern Hydroprogne caspia and West African Crested Tern Thalasseus albididorsalis coincide with the incidence of Avian Influenza in breeding colonies in West Africa.⁴ El Hacen and colleagues demonstrated the utility of annual and standardized monitoring of waterbirds near Iwik. They recommend that this annual monitoring be maintained, and that similar monitoring be established in the south of the PNBA. Such continued monitoring will increase knowledge about one link in a chain of critical sites along the East Atlantic Flyway. The other day, I felt a breeze as hot as the Mauritanian wind on my face. It reminded me of my own experiences working with shorebirds near Iwik in December 2006. I benefitted from a long-term collaboration between NIOZ and PNBA that has supported far more than winter counts. My study looked at the effect of age and environment on immune function in Red Knots and found that young birds at the lower quality Baie d’Aouatif roost site had higher white blood cell counts than adults or young birds at the higher quality Ebelk Aiznay site⁵. During my recent encounter with hair dryer hot wind, I was not in Mauritania, but rather far to the north, and the air was humid as well as hot. The heat and humidity created storms that unleashed a torrent of rain causing flooding in the subway. Due to delays, I nearly missed my regional train, a delay which would have caused me to miss the last regional bus at the next interchange, leaving me stranded. On long travels, success at each interchange depends on the last and each link is of paramount importance. In a world where climate change is making the weather unpredictable and violent, I feel solidarity with the birds, never quite sure what the next stop will bring, or if they’ll make it on time, on their tenuous journey from link to link.   ¹ Oudman, T., H. Schekkerman, A. Kidé, M. van Roomen, M. Camara, C. Smit, J. ten Horn, T. Piersma & E.-H.M. El-Hacen. 2020. Changes in the waterbird community of the Parc National du Banc d’Arguin, Mauritania, 1980–2017. Bird Conservation International 30: 618–633. ² El-Hacen. E.-H.M., J. ten Horn, A. Dekinga, B. Loos & T. Piersma. 2024. Two decades of change in nonbreeding population sizes of shorebirds and other waterbirds in the Iwik area of Parc National du Banc d’Arguin, Mauritania. Wader Study 131(2): 112–121. ³ van Gils, J.A., M. van der Geest, J. Leyrer, T. Oudman, T. Lok, J. Onrust, J. de Fouw, T. van der Heide, P.J. van den Hout, B. Spaans, A. Dekinga, M. Brugge & T. Piersma. 2013. Toxin constraint explains diet choice, survival and population dynamics in a molluscivore shorebird. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 280: S 20130861. ⁴ Davis, J. (2023). Bird flu outbreak spreads across West African migratory route. Natural History Museum. Accessed 31 Oct 2023. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2023/april/bird-flu-outbreak-spreads-across-west-african-migratory-route.html ⁵ Buehler, D.M., B.I. Tieleman & T. Piersma. 2009 Age and environment affect constitutive immune function in red knots (Calidris canutus). Journal of Ornithology 150: 815–825.   PDF of this article   Featured image: A large flock of shorebirds and six flamingos in Banc d’Arguin, Mauritania (photo: Jan van de Kam).

by Deborah Buehler originally published in Wader Study 131(3) You can learn a lot from poo. [caption id="attachment_18743" align="aligncenter" width="699"] Zackenberg Fjord in July 2022. How do researchers find out what birds are eating in a place like this? (© Mikhail Zhemchuzhnikov 2022)[/caption] For example, how can one determine what birds eat across the vast stretches of the Arctic tundra? The Arctic is a place where it is hard enough to find birds, and much harder to see what goes into their beaks. However, understanding the diet of birds that breed in the Arctic is paramount for understanding their habitat needs in a rapidly changing climate. Of particular interest is the possibility of mismatch between the peaks of breeding and food sources. Such mismatches could be caused by shifts in the timing and intensity of the seasons in the Arctic region, where climatic changes are most pronounced. To test for such mismatches, researchers need to understand both the peak abundance of various prey species (usually arthropods) and what growing chicks of various species actually eat after hatching. In this issue of Wader Study, Mikhail Zhemchuzhnikov and colleagues present the first use of DNA metabarcoding to identify multiple prey species in faecal samples from chicks of several shorebird species, breeding in Greenland¹. The researchers collected the data between 6 and 25 July 2022 in the high Arctic tundra at Zackenberg in northeast Greenland (74°28’N, 20°34’W). They captured shorebird chicks from six species that breed regularly in the area: Dunlin Calidris alpina, Red Knot Calidris canutus, Red-necked Phalarope Phalaropus lobatus, Red Phalarope Phalaropus fulicarius, Ringed Plover Charadrius hiaticula and Ruddy Turnstone Arenaria interpres. The researchers captured the chicks by hand during the pre-fledging period (before the chicks were old enough to fly). To collect the faecal samples, they put the chicks in a disinfected and sectioned plexiglass box. Each section contained one chick and was lined with two layers of fresh tissue paper. To minimize any negative impacts, chicks were released after 10 minutes if no defecation occurred. If a chick did leave a sample, it was scraped from the tissue using a clean disposable plastic spoon and stored in 96% ethanol at -20°C until laboratory analysis. How exactly can DNA barcoding a poo sample determine what a shorebird chick has eaten? DNA barcoding can identify taxonomic groups (e.g., species, family, or class) using short, standardized segments of DNA²; the DNA of what a bird has eaten remains at least somewhat intact within its droppings. The segment of DNA commonly used for Metazoans is usually a section of the gene known as “Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I”, located in the mitochondria of cells. This gene has a mutation rate roughly three times that of other forms of DNA². That means it is more likely to harbour genetic differences, even between closely related organisms. Primers specific to the gene are used in a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to make many copies of this piece of DNA. These copies are then sequenced to determine their exact code. Every species has a unique sequence (“barcode”), just as every person has a unique fingerprint or each item for sale in a store or shop has a barcode. These DNA barcodes are then compared with a reference library to identify taxonomic groups. In DNA metabarcoding, a sample contains sequences of many potential organisms. For example, different arthropod groups have been found in a sample of shorebird poo. The proportion of copies for one particular sequence variation divided by the total number of copies (reads) is called Relative Read Abundance (RRA). [caption id="attachment_18745" align="aligncenter" width="699"] Red Knot Calidris canutus chicks before being released after their faeces were sampled. (© Roeland Bom)[/caption] How could the researchers be sure that what turned up after barcoding the samples truly reflected everything the birds had eaten? Additionally, how could they be sure that digestion did not degrade the DNA of some species more than others? These important questions were addressed in an earlier study on cavity-nesting birds that allowed the filming of parents feeding chicks³. Data from the camera footage validated that DNA metabarcoding of faeces accurately represented the ingested arthropod groups. This also validated that digestion did not bias the results for any particular group. Perhaps most exciting was that the study reported a high correlation between the relative read abundance of different variations and the consumed biomass of arthropod groups seen on the camera footage. If this is generally the case, then it means that read numbers retrieved from DNA metabarcoding can also be used to quantify the relative biomass of arthropod groups in bird diets. Following the DNA metabarcoding method used by Verkuil and colleagues³, Zhemchuzhnikov and colleagues showed that two-winged flies (Diptera) are a core component of Arctic shorebird chick diets: they were present as a majority in all droppings, except one Ringed Plover sample. Within Diptera, the dominant groups were Culicidae (mosquitoes), Chironomidae (non-biting midges), Muscidae (house flies), and Empididae (dagger or dance flies). Interestingly, the Ringed Plover sample showed a different arthropod composition. There were many reads from Lepidoptera (mainly geometer moths) and Hymenoptera (mainly parasitic wasps) and fewer from Diptera. The researchers speculated the parasitic wasps might represent secondary prey species (prey of the prey eaten by the chick). Blattellidae (cockroaches) were also found in this sample (and four others) but probably represent contamination during sample handling. The authors acknowledge that they sampled only a short time of the year and had only a small number of faecal samples per shorebird species. The next steps might include a longer sampling period to capture diet shifts within species during the breeding season. Additionally, the practice of using read numbers to approximate the relative contributions of prey taxa is quite new and has only been validated for an insectivorous songbird³. Despite the study’s limitations, Zhemchuzhnikov and colleagues have expanded the use of DNA metabarcoding to a new location in Northeast Greenland. They have provided new insights into the needs of Arctic breeding birds at a time when this region is warming and changing rapidly. This study is part of a rapidly increasing pool of knowledge generated by DNA barcoding, showing how this method can be used to better understand ecological diversity in various environments and how these environments support the harboured biodiversity. To quote Ben Panko in Smithsonian Magazine⁴ “The key to protecting life on earth may be barcoding it”.   ¹ Zhemchuzhnikov, M.K., T.S L. Versluijs, R.A. Bom, R. Blok, J.D.L. van Bleijswijk, J. Reneerkens & J.A.van Gils. 2024. A DNA-based dietary study of shorebird chicks in Greenland. Wader Study 131: 178–179.  ² International Barcode of Life. 2024. What is DNA barcoding? International Barcode of Life. Accessed 29 Nov 2024 at https://ibol.org/about/dna-barcoding/ ³ Verkuil, Y.I., M. Nicolaus, R. Ubels, M.W. Dietz, J.M. Samplonius, A. Galema, K. Kiekebos, P. de Knijff & C. Both. 2022. DNA metabarcoding quantifies the relative biomass of arthropod taxa in songbird diets: Validation with camera‐recorded diets. Ecology & Evolution 12: e8881. ⁴ Pando, B. 2017. The key to protecting life on Earth may be barcoding it. Smithsonian.com. Accessed 29 Nov 2024 at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-dna-barcoding-opens-new-doors-conservation-180963431/   PDF of this article   Featured image: Incubating sanderling. Zackenberg, Greenland.  

The booklet for the 2024 edition of the IWSG Annual Conference is now finalized: note that this version does not include the list of participants (delegates, a full version has been sent to you by email)

The program for the 2024 edition of the IWSG Annual Conference is now finalized: The French Biodiversity Agency (OFB) and the LPO-BirdLife France look forward to welcoming you to Montpellier from September 20 to 24, 2024. On behalf of the IWSG 2024 Conference Team.