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

Tracks of a specific species

Black-tailed Godwit

Black-tailed Godwit

Limosa limosaview tracks
Bar-tailed Godwit

Bar-tailed Godwit

Limosa lapponicaview tracks
Red Knot

Red Knot

Calidris canutusview tracks
Eurasian Spoonbill

Eurasian Spoonbill

Platalea leucorodiaview tracks
Eurasian Whimbrel

Eurasian Whimbrel

Numenius phaeopusview tracks
Eurasian Curlew

Eurasian Curlew

Numenius arquataview tracks
Nordmann's Greenshank

Nordmann's Greenshank

Tringa guttiferview tracks

Latest news

Grutto landschap project: Jaarverslag 2023

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 belast. Een veelgehoorde en serieuze oplossingsrichting is om het bedrijfsmodel weer te baseren op korte kringlopen en natuurlijke proces...

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TAGGING 2023, BROOME, AUSTRALIA

Usually, the acknowledgements section goes at the end of the report.
Here in Broome the work that happens would never happen without the input of the volunteer team and therefore to us it makes sense to put those volunteers front and centre. The team for Tagging2023 was a mix of volunteer and professionals and here we thank them all.
Adrian Boyle, Charlotte Burgoyne, Dianne Bennett, Fr...

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Black-tailed Godwits (Limosa limosa) in southern Spain, habitat description and finding colour marked birds from 5 – 13 October 2023

In this expedition from 5 to 13 October 2023 we visited the most important areas for wintering
Black-tailed Godwits in southern Spain. Our aim was to resight individual colour marked birds,
describe the habitats used by godwits and to gain information on threats and opportunities by field
observations and meetings with local experts. In this report we present a daily overview of our
...

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Black-tailed Godwits (Limosa limosa) in southern Iberia, habitat description and finding colour marked birds from 1 – 26 February 2023

In this expedition from 1 to 26 February 2023 we visited the most important areas for Black-tailed Godwits in southern Spain and Portugal during northward migration. Our aim was to resight individual colour marked birds, describe the habitats godwits used and to gain information on threats and opportunities by field observations and meetings with local experts. In this report we present ...

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Tweet @GlobalFlyway - Jun 20, 2023 12:55

Bird eyes & ears: is it a virtue to see & hear attentively, thus sense the state of the world around us; & then speak about it?
We think so, as explained in editorial to #SAHEL-special of @ArdeaJournal with Foreword of @ibrahimthiaw.
"Ground-truthed baseline to Great #GreenWall" https://t.co/pKV0BzLPNP https://t.co/PSsS4rdbJ1

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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

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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

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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!

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Projects with tracks (view projects on map)

Bar-tailed Godwit -- East Atlantic Flyway -- GPS-GSM

37550 deployed locations

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Bar-tailed Godwit -- East Atlantic Flyway -- PTT

48528 deployed locations

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Bar-tailed Godwit migration, New Zealand

38232 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.

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Black-tailed Godwit Iberia - NL 2019

99243 deployed locations

Btg caught in Portugal 8-01-2019.


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Black-tailed Godwit NL 2021 Microwave

2545 deployed locations

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Black-tailed Godwits -- VeenVitaal

13135 deployed locations

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Black-tailed Godwits Extremadura (HQXS)

11022 deployed locations

Oxidative stress during energetically demanding states and its transgenerational consequences in migrants (OXISTRESS)


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Black-tailed godwits NL South Holland

5108 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.

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Duemmer Adult Godwits_2018

17303 deployed locations

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Duemmer Adult Godwits_2019

15667 deployed locations

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Duemmer Adult Godwits_2020

20622 deployed locations

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Duemmer Adult Godwits_2021

20037 deployed locations

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Duemmer Godwit Chicks_2021

13002 deployed locations

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Eurasian Spoonbill - Lok - Netherlands 2019-2023

1995923 deployed locations

For background information about the project, see https://www.nioz.nl/en/expertise/wadden-delta-research-centre/expertise-wadden/birds/how-do-migratory-birds-find-their-way

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GrassBirdHabitats Adult Godwits_2022

31699 deployed locations

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GrassBirdHabitats Adult Godwits_2023

104194 deployed locations

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hand-raised juveniles 2016

25537 deployed locations

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hand-raised juveniles 2017

22322 deployed locations

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Limosa limosa Black-tailed godwit China/Australia

46063 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.

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Manila Bay Shorebird Tracking Feb 2024

178089 deployed locations

Shorebirds were fitted with trackers to study local habitat use and (migration) movements


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Migratlane [ID_PROG 1275]

2231362 deployed locations

tracking seabirds and terrestrial migrants to identify foraging, resting, dispersal and migratory pathways to advise offshore wind farm planning in the Channel and East Atlantic, off France

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Nordmann's Greenshank - Lotek PinPoint 75- Thailand

114 deployed locations

Tracking Nordmann's Greenshank from SE Asia (Thailand) using Lotek PinPoint 75s


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Red Knot New Zealand-China

3357 deployed locations

This project aims to clarify the stopover sites used by Red Knots between New Zealand an their Russian breeding grounds. Geolocator work has identified stopovers on both migration directions in either the Gulf of Carpentaria or Papua New Guinea, along the Chinese coast and in the Sea of Okhotsk and Kamchatka Peninsula, but analuyses were equivocal about which sites (or even countries) were being used. This study, using satellite telemetry, aims to identity with certainty the sites used.

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Red Knot Vici Van Gils

9111 deployed locations

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SPOONBILL_WAAKVOGELS - Eurasian Spoonbills (Platalea leucorodia, Threskiornithidae) from the breeding population in The Netherlands

600130 deployed locations

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Teampiersma HQXS 2022

22399 deployed locations

Limosa limosa limosa


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Teampiersma HQXS 2023

30917 deployed locations

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Teampiersma Interrex 2023

42807 deployed locations

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TeampiersmaBD_Limosa limosa

55319 deployed locations

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Waders Tanga Tanzania

98058 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).

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Whimbrel -- East Atlantic Flyway -- PTT

29916 deployed locations

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WWF-Hong Kong migratory bird tracking

17079 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/

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