Bird Migration : Whimbrel Tracking

The Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary and The Nature Conservancy in Virginia have successfully used a state of the art, 9.5 gram, satellite transmitter to track a whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus) from Virginia to the MacKenzie River near Alaska.  This event documents an unknown and entirely unexpected migration route between the mid-Atlantic coast and the northwestern Arctic.  The bird completed this apparent nonstop flight of more than 5,000 km (3,200 miles) in 146 hours.  This discovery sets a new distance record in the flight range of this species and highlights the hemispheric importance of the Delmarva Peninsula as a staging area for migratory shorebirds.  The flight documented this spring challenges some long-held assumptions and raises several new questions about whimbrel ecology. 

Click on the Current Tracking Map link for the whimbrel's current position.