Shorebirds are in trouble. According to several reports, such as 3 Billion Birds, the 2025 San Francisco Bay State of the Birds Report, and our own recent groundbreaking study they represent a bird group that is experiencing some of the largest population declines. They are migratory superheroes often traveling thousands of miles every year from their nesting areas in the northern hemisphere to their wintering grounds in the southern hemisphere, with many pit stops along the way of varying lengths. To understand the ecology and conservation problems and solutions of a shorebird like a Dunlin, for example, an international community of scientists and volunteers working closely together are needed. Because what happens at one particular site, like Sipacate, Guatemala, will always just be part of the story. In order to help shorebirds, conservation at the scale of their migratory journey is needed.
In 2011 the Migratory Shorebird Project was born, under the leadership of Point Blue Conservation Science, supported by new funding from the U.S. Forest Service International Programs and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Existing citizen science surveys in California, Mexico, and Canada all fit the survey design. An intensive program of training and partnerships with the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network and other partners expanded the monitoring to 13 nations by 2020.
The Migratory Shorebird Project is now the largest collaborative research and monitoring program of shorebirds on the Pacific Coast of the Americas. The Project helps guide conservation and management of shorebirds, other wetland dependent species, and their habitats in all 13 countries that touch the Pacific Ocean in the Western Hemisphere. We are currently working with over 50 organizational partners and 500 volunteers to collect data annually on over 1.5 million shorebirds representing 44 species, as well as tracking the condition of their wetland habitat at over 84 critical wetlands.
Read more about the impact and outcome of shorebird conservation on our Impact page.