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What are Shorebirds?
Migration
The tremendous importance of the strategy of migration to shorebirds cannot be overstated. Most shorebirds migrate long distances between their summer and winter homes. They are dependent upon at least three distinct habitats: their breeding habitat, non breeding habitat, and stopover sites along the migration routes. They are physically designed for long distance flight, as you will learn in the activities to follow.
All Arctic-nesting shorebirds migrate. The Arctic refers to that region of our globe that is in the far north, generally north of the imaginary latitude line known as the Arctic Circle. Some shorebirds that breed in northern Alaska spend the winter as far away as southern Chile. Some plovers, curlews, and tattlers fly non-stop from Hawaii and other Pacific islands to Alaska, a distance of over 3,500 miles in two or three days. Many species of shorebirds form large flocks for the long migrations between North America and South America. (Map of shorebird migration.)
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