Maya's Adventure:



  Home | Activities/Lesson Plans | Electronic Field Trip/Webcast | Maya's Sponsors
   

 
  Program Description
  Goals & Objectives
  Maya's Story
  Shorebirds
    - Morphology
    - Behavior
    - Migration
    - Feeding
    - Identification
      - Photo Gallery
    - Importance
    - Habitats
    - Gee Whiz Facts
  What is a Wetland?
  Teacher Resource      Center
  Electronic Field Trip/Webcast
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.)

back top next
   

 








  Home | Activities/Lesson Plans | Electronic Field Trip/Webcast | Maya's Sponsors    

 

 

Produced by the Prince William Network in Collaboration with the USDA Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network. Copyright © 2001 Prince William County Public Schools. All rights reserved.

PRINCE WILLIAM NETWORK
P.O. Box 389 Manassas, VA 20108
Phone: 703.791.7328    E-mail: pwninfo@aol.com

A Filnet, Inc. Solution