'Itinerant breeding' in East Coast shorebird species

A study has found direct evidence of a species -- the American woodcock, a migratory shorebird from eastern and central North America -- that overlaps periods of migration and reproduction, a rare breeding strategy known as 'itinerant breeding.'

"Each year the period of migration is distinct from the period of breeding in the vast majority of migratory birds, presumably because doing so at the same time is simply too costly," said Scott McWilliams, URI professor in natural resources science and principal investigator on the study."This paper provides the best documented case of a migratory bird that is an itinerant breeder.

To do that, the study benefitted from the work of scores of biologists from federal, state and non-governmental agencies along the American woodcock's flyway, from the southern U.S. into Canada, who tagged more than 350 females with GPS transmitters between 2019 and 2022. That initiative was part of the University of Maine's Eastern Woodcock Migration Research Cooperative.

Based on GPS tracking of more than 200 females, the URI study found that more than 80% of the tagged females nested more than once during migration -- some up to six times. During northward migration, females traveled an average of 800 kilometers between first and second nests, and shorter distances between subsequent nests, the study said. During 2021-22, URI researchers oversaw onsite verification of 26 nests from 22 females.

"A lot of birds probably can't do it because they don't have these lower reproductive costs that woodcock have evolved to do," he said. Despite steady declines in woodcock populations and their preferred young forest habitat over the last half century, the study offers a glimmer of hope for woodcock, and other itinerant breeders facing the challenges of ongoing human development and climate change.

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