2020-10-09, Mu, Tong, Tomkovich, Pavel S., Loktionov, Egor Y., Syroechkovskiy, Evgeny E., Wilcove, David S.

Effective conservation of migratory species depends on understanding both migratory connectivity and migration strategy. The Red‐necked Stint Calidris ruficollis is a small, highly migratory sandpiper of the East Asian‐Australasian Flyway, which is classified as Near Threatened due to ongoing population declines. We tracked the migration of three Red‐necked Stints breeding in southern Chukotka, Russia, using geolocators, and supplemented our tracking data with re‐sighting records of color‐flagged individuals. The three birds, all of which bred within 2km of each other, wintered in three different localities spanning nearly 5,000km. One individual completed its northward migration of >9400 km in two marathon flights; the second leg of that journey was completed in a nonstop flight of 5,350 km. The successful conservation of just this one population requires protection of wintering sites across a vast area, coupled with key staging sites along the flyway. We suggest that other migratory species may pose similar conservation challenges.