The Global Flyway Network (GFN) is a non-profit foundation that seeks to foster and strengthen partnerships between researchers studying the demography and movement ecology of migrant shorebirds across the world. This website provides the latest news about the research conducted by our partners, and enables professionals and laypeople to explore the movements of individually tracked shorebirds.
Using the menu on the left, or scrolling down this page, you can explore tracking data for specific species, projects, flyways, or within a certain radius of your current or a selected location. Please bear with us as we are constantly working to expand and improve our services.
The development of the GFN (website) is led by the BirdEyes Institute for Global Ecological Change of the University of Groningen. more
Latest news
Tweet @GlobalFlyway - Jun 20, 2023 12:37
#SAHEL-special is forworded by @ibrahimthiaw, who grew up here & saw: "how nature could suddenly shift from healthy – full of trees & birds – into barren landscapes."
"I hope that today’s young Sahelians will get to experience the beauty & bounty of this harsh yet hopeful land." https://t.co/9bwfrz3xuO https://t.co/m5tMUIeDsG
Tweet @GlobalFlyway - Jun 20, 2023 12:19
YES! Some of us were lucky enough to receive copies of mighty #SAHEL-special of @ArdeaJournal with >400 pages packed with information on trees & birds & people across the entire zone! Subscribers to @ArdeaJournal will follow soon. Amazing achievement of Zwarts team! @ibrahimthiaw https://t.co/7YflpombaG
Tweet @GlobalFlyway - Jun 20, 2023 09:24
@Ben_Sheldon_EGI @VeenVitaal @RoelandBom @RuthHowison @SisselSjoberg @CampusFryslan @univgroningen @projectgodwit @ParcDiawling @prcmarine @HacenElHacen @BirdLife_Sci It did! Have a look at https://t.co/0k3EIuDNby to see the many tagged black-tailed #godwits that are already underway, many of them failed breeders!
Tweet @GlobalFlyway - Jun 20, 2023 09:16
Black-tailegd #godwit OVERVEEN, tagged by @VeenVitaal, gave away marvels of #migration during #flight from SW Netherlands to Senegal delta. @RoelandBom's quick analysis shows brief stops in Oléron & Donana and daytime climbs to #altitudes of 4-6 km, flying v high across #Sahara! https://t.co/eIcN8yNoUK https://t.co/7Az6WST6y6
Tweet @GlobalFlyway - Jun 18, 2023 14:45
The Dutch and German breeding black-tailed #godwits, #grutto's, #Uferschnepfe have started to cross the #Sahara in southward directions, and for them a period of #moult, feather replacement, begins. It will be busy in the airspace. Interested? Look at: https://t.co/0k3EIuDNby https://t.co/bl5lq74imD https://t.co/SudbNuAc9k
Tweet @GlobalFlyway - Jun 18, 2023 14:39
En OVERVEEN, de eerste @VeenVitaal #grutto is al naar de Senegal Delta getrokken! Ook in WAfrika vertellen grutto's belangrijke verhalen, namelijk over kleinschalige rijstteelt & omgang met water die duurzaam is en gezond voor bodem en mensen.
Volg ze op https://t.co/0d4J38zd7i https://t.co/LeZnAGd79C https://t.co/1wIE6wML7U
Tweet @GlobalFlyway - Jun 15, 2023 13:19
It is fewer than 2 weeks to PhD thesis defence of @DrewBingrun at @univgroningen. The defence can be followed online, his thesis accessed online too. Black-tailed #godwits have yielded a few more of their many secrets through his biometric, genetic, tracking & ecological work. https://t.co/toHjh5U5zy
Recherche sur les limicoles du Banc d’Arguin, Mauritanie
Cette année, c'était notre 21eme expédition hivernale consécutive de recherche sur les limicoles dans le Parc Nationale du Banc d’Arguin. La première expédition a eu lieu en novembre 2002. L'accent de ces expéditions est basé sur la démographie des limicoles et se concentre principalement sur le bécasseau maubèche, la barge rousse et la spatule blanche. Dans le passé, nous ...
Grutto landschap project: Jaarverslag 2022
Jaarverslag 2022
“On the way to Godwit-proof…”
De staat van ons landschap:
Biomonitoring van duurzame
landbouw innovatie
De landbouw in Nederland staat voor een grote uitdaging: het produceren van genoeg, veilig en gezond voedsel zonder dat dit ten koste gaat van de leefbaarheid op het platteland voor plant, mens en dier. En zonder dat het de planeet in bredere zin zwaar...
Recherche sur les bécasseaux maubèches du Banc d’Arguin, Mauritanie
En mar et avril 2022 nous sommes allés au Banc d'Arguin pour attraper des bécasseaux maubèches pour la recherche par satellite. L’objectif était d'équiper bécasseaux maubèches avec des émetteurs satellites afin de suivre leurs routes de migration et leur synchronisation vers la mer des Wadden et les zones de reproduction Sibériennes. Nous avons réussi à capturer des oiseaux ...
Grassland management suitable for Black-tailed Godwits is rare in The Netherlands
Yuhong Li, Theunis Piersma, Jos Hooijmeijer, and Ruth Howison
The majority of Dutch grasslands are not suitable for our national bird, the Black-tailed Godwit, as a result of high management intensity. In areas with intensive agriculture, Godwits need more space to meet all their resource needs (Fig. 1). Yuhong Li and fellow researchers from the University of Groningen (GELIFES) draw th...
Land-use intensity impacts habitat selection of ground-nesting farmland birds in The Netherlands
Post-war intensification of agriculture has extensively modified the countryside of Europe, transforming most semi-natural
grassland habitats into homogeneous fields, characterized by mechanization, deep drainage and the increasing use of artificial fertilizers and agrochemicals (Benton et al., 2003; Emmerson et al., 2016), and unfavourable to farmland birds that require varied habitat ...
Projects with tracks (view projects on map)
Bar-tailed Godwit migration, New Zealand
37742 deployed locations
Determine how godwits use the Yellow Sea region on northward migration in the face of habitat degradation and catastrophic food supply loss. This is a collaboration involving the Global Flyway Network, Birds NZ, Massey University and Birds Canada.
read more ↓Black-tailed godwits NL South Holland
5035 deployed locations
In nature reserve De Nesse and Berkenwoude of Zuid-Hollands Landschaps and agricultural area management by Agrarisch Collectief Krimpenerwaard measures were taken to improve the habitat of waders, such as the black-tailed godwits. Previous studies show that the number of waders increase, however do they also succeed in raising chicks successfully? By tracking families we will be able to determine the breeding success, but most importantly learn more about the habitat use during the chick phase.
read more ↓Limosa limosa Black-tailed godwit China/Australia
45874 deployed locations
Black-tailed Godwits are widely distributed in Eurasia. More than 10,000 godwits stage in the northern part of Bohai Bay in China – Hangu, Tianjin and Nanpu, Tangshan coast during spring – to refuel at saltpans and mudflats. Their staging period lasts about 45 days (from beginning of April till the middle of May). However, there is very little knowledge about this population: where is there breeding and wintering ground? We have collected more than 40 resightings along the EAAF, and only three showed a connection between Maipo Wetland in Hong Kong and Bohai Bay, not even one of the Bohai godwits was connected with Northwest Australia, which is the main wintering ground of melanuroides Black-tailed Godwits – the only described subspecies in this flyway. Furthermore, morphologically, the population that appears in Bohai Bay have thicker and longer bills, larger body sizes and paler plumage than the described melanuroides godwits.
read more ↓Waders Tanga Tanzania
15080 deployed locations
From 15 to 27 January 2023 an international team of experts from Tanzania, Kenya and The Netherlands started the Tanga Wader project in the coastal area of Mwarongo, Tanga, Northern Tanzania, with the objective to deploy transmitters on a number of target bird species in order to obtain information about local habitat use and migration towards the breeding areas. This information helps understand the dependence of these birds on habitats and stop-over sites during migration and will create awareness of the importance of connectivity along the West Asian East African Flyway. 583 birds of 18 species were caught amongst which 200 of 4 target species. All birds were ringed and in addition, all target species were colour-ringed. 54 birds were fitted with a transmitter, using a range of transmission techniques to optimize the chances of obtaining a mix of detailed and continuous information about the whereabouts of the birds. Three months after transmitter deployment already a wealth of data has been gathered on the local habitat use by the birds and migration has started with the a number of birds demonstrating intriguing migration trajectories (situation April 2023).
read more ↓WWF-Hong Kong migratory bird tracking
14119 deployed locations
WWF-Hong Kong believes as problems grow in scale and complexity, we need future solutions and a creative multi-pronged approach to secure the future of wetlands and the iconic species that depend on it. With generous donation from HSBC, WWF-Hong Kong has launched the Wetland Incubator project to find conservation solutions for future thriving flyways. We aim at using tracking devices as a tool to investigate migration of shorebird species in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. To learn more about project: https://www.wwf.org.hk/en/wetlands/mai-po/wetland_incubator/
read more ↓