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Top: Kids_and_Teens: School_Time: Science: Living_Things: Animals: Birds: Shorebirds
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All sites submitted to the category must be designed for use by kids and teens and provide information on or about shorebirds.
Websites designed for parents or teachers, or to sell products or services, will not be accepted.
Sites about specific shorebirds (plovers, stilts, etc.) should be submitted to the appropriate subcategory. |
Shorebirds are a group of birds that live on beaches, grasslands, and wetlands. They often have long bills, legs, and toes that help with wading in the water. Because many build their nests in the sand, most have earth-colored feathers to help them hide.
Birds in this group include plovers, oystercatchers, curlews, avocets, stilts, and sandpipers. They are migratory birds, which means they travel to different places when the weather changes.
As global warming, pollution, and oil spills damage wetlands and beaches, shorebirds are becoming endangered. Because they travel long distances, any area along their path that is destroyed affects the birds.
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All sites submitted to this category must be designed for use by kids and teens, and provide information on or about curlews.
Websites designed for parents or teachers, or to sell products or services, will not be accepted. |
Curlews are shorebirds with long, down-curved bills that help them search for food in mud or very soft ground. Many migrate long distances, from as far north as Siberia to Australia and farther.
There are eight different species of curlew: the Whimbrel, Bristle-thighed, Eurasian, Eastern, Little, and Long-billed. The Slender-billed Curlew is critically endangered.
The Eskimo Curlew may be extinct. The last confirmed sighting was in 1962. A book and animated movie, Last of the Curlews, tell the story of this bird that may have been seen by Columbus when he reached North America.
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All sites submitted to this category must be designed for use by kids and teens, and provide information on or about godwits.
Websites designed for parents or teachers, or to sell products or services, will not be accepted. |
Godwits are shorebirds with straight or slightly up-turned bills that help them pick up insects and crustaceans. The females are usually much larger than the males.
There are four different species of godwit: the Black-tailed, Hudsonian, Bar-tailed, and Marbled.
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All sites submitted to this category must be designed for use by kids and teens, and provide information on or about oystercatchers.
Websites designed for parents or teachers, or to sell products or services, will not be accepted. |
Oystercatchers are large, noisy birds, with strong bills used for smashing or prying open mollusks, or pointed bills used to dig for worms.
These shorebirds live on coasts all over the world, except for the polar regions. They are all-black, black and white, or brown and white in appearance.
There are eleven species, including the Chatham Islands Oystercatcher which is critically endangered.
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All sites submitted to this category must be designed for use by kids / teens and provide information on or about plovers.
Websites designed for parents or teachers, or to sell products or services, will not be accepted. |
Plovers (family Charadriidae) live all over the world, from arctic tundra to tropical sandbars. There are 66 different species in this family of birds. Some look alike; others are very different.Because people like to live and play where the plovers live and play, many species are becoming threatened or endangered.
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All sites submitted to this category must be designed for use by kids and teens, and provide information on or about stone-curlews, thick-knees, or dikkops.
Websites designed for parents or teachers, or to sell products or services, will not be accepted. |
Stone-curlews, also called Thick-knees, are medium to large shorebirds that live in warm, tropical areas. Although related to plovers and avocets, these birds prefer to live and hunt on dry land. They have strong black or yellow black bills, and large yellow eyes.
There are nine species, including Stone Curlew, Bush Stone-curlew, Beach Stone-curlew, Great Thick-knee, Senegal Thick-knee, Double-striped Thick-knee, Peruvian Thick-knee, Water Dikkop, and Spotted Dikkop.
These birds are named for their songs, which sound like curlews and for their large knee joints. Hunting at night, they eat insects and other invertebrates. Larger birds also eat crustaceans and small lizards.
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