Shorebirds are a group of predominantly migratory birds that are declining at an alarming rate; many of them have declined by more than 50% since 1970 and 13 are of federal conservation concern. With staggeringly long, trans-hemispheric migrations along each of North America’s migratory flyways — distinct corridors that divide North America longitudinally — shorebirds breeding in the Arctic and sub-Arctic and wintering in Central and South America encounter a multitude of threats during their annual cycles. This study aims to track the fall migration of a suite of species from their breeding sites across Alaska to the southern extent of their respective ranges and address how differences in migratory connectivity inform the risks faced by species whose ranges overlap during some but not all of their annual cycles. This will be accomplished by deploying GPS transmitters on six migratory shorebird species,all with either high or relatively unknown levels of conservation concern. The six species are comprised of three species pairs — Short- (Limnodromus griseus) and Long-billed (L. scolopaceus) Dowitchers, American (Pluvialis dominica) and Pacific (P. fulva) Golden-Plovers, and Lesser (Tringa flavipes) and Greater (T. melanoleuca) Yellowlegs — all of which breed in Alaska and diverge during southbound migration to use distinct migratory flyways. To detect differences in migratory strategies within a species, ten individuals of each species will be tracked from two distinct sites in their breeding range, totaling twenty individuals for each species. Three of the species predominantly use the Pacific Flyway, which spans from western Alaska to the southern tip of South America. The other three species predominantly use the Mid-Continental and Atlantic Flyways, which include central and northern Alaska and extend southward through the Canadian Prairie Provinces to the Pampas grasslands of central South America.
