FLYWAYS: The untold journey of migratory shorebirds

A birds-eye-view journey into the world of the migratory shorebird. The world’s greatest endurance athletes fly up to 9 days non-stop, and they need your help..

Shorebirds are the world’s greatest endurance athletes. They migrate non-stop for up to 9 days without food or water: the longest known migration of any species. Flying thousands of miles along ancient flyways, they travel from their feeding grounds in the Southern Hemisphere to the High Arctic and back again. But in just 30 years, populations have declined precipitously. Flyways once teeming with life are falling quiet. It’s become a race against time to save them.

In the Americas, Australia, Europe and Asia, scientists are tackling the shorebird conservation challenge. For animals that transcend borders, it’s no easy task to determine why they decline. Using the very latest science including revolutionary tracking technology on the ISS, they hope to decode their mysterious flyways and save them. A captivating film on how shorebirds, through their incredible migrations across hemispheres are bringing out the best in humanity and science, to help save them from precipitous declines.

This documentary, directed by Randall Wood, arose from reading the article by Jan Van Gils, with whom he contacted. Actually, Jan, this DBF24 will be giving a talk in marquee 1 on Saturday about Arctic warming and how the red knot feels it on its migration journey. The director decided that the story of the red knot would be one that he would document in the film. In this way, Randall’s team joined Jan’s scientific expedition to Mauritania in the years 2021 and 2022 and during his trip to Alaska where a large part of the scenes were recorded.