Food availability shapes the survival of shorebirds on China’s mudflats
He-Bo Peng leads the study of how mudflat food supplies shape migratory bird survival along China’s coast. As a master’s student, he connected with Theunis Piersma, whose mentorship guided Hebo’s PhD and shaped his research. Hebo’s research carries the signature of BirdEyes—understanding the delicate relationships that sustain life along migratory flyways.
Looking Beneath the Surface
Along China’s 18,400-kilometre coastline, migratory birds arrive each year in quiet urgency. They travel vast distances—from Australia and New Zealand to the Arctic—following the East Asian–Australasian Flyway. For them, the mudflats are not a destination but a necessity: a place to rest, feed, and gather the energy needed to survive the next stage of their journey.
For more than a decade, Hebo has returned to these shores each spring, spending months in the field. His work goes beyond counting birds. With his team, he studies the small shellfish buried in the mud that ultimately determine whether these birds live or die. His research reveals a precise truth: survival depends not just on space, but on the consistent availability of food.
A more complex threat than habitat loss
Initially, the threat seemed obvious. Rapid industrialization reshaped much of China’s coastline, and land reclamation erased key habitats. After 2010, the government introduced protective policies, including a nationwide ban on further reclamation in 2018, which slowed this loss. Yet bird populations continued to decline despite these efforts.
Searching for answers, Hebo uncovered a more complex reality. Human activity has intensified on many remaining mudflats. Local communities collect shellfish for income, while visitors dig for leisure. Individually small, these actions add up, reducing birds’ food supply. In some areas, people now rival birds in number, creating a critical imbalance.
Rethinking human intervention
Nearby shellfish farms offer an unexpected contrast. Although humans manage these areas, they operate with structure and restraint. Farmers time harvesting carefully, limit access, and leave juvenile shellfish undisturbed. These practices create a steady, renewable food source. When authorities banned such practices in parts of southern China, bird numbers dropped sharply.
This outcome shows that not all human intervention harms the ecosystem. In some cases, it can sustain ecological balance. This challenges the assumption that conservation succeeds only when nature is left untouched; in reality, outcomes depend on how people interact with ecosystems.
Conservation as a collective effort
Hebo’s work also reflects another essential idea—conservation is collective. His team includes not only scientists and students, but also people from different backgrounds. Zhen Han, a photographer and dedicated birder, has spent years supporting fieldwork. Zhuo Liu, once a pastry chef, found a new purpose in bird monitoring. Their daily observations, support, and persistence may seem small, but together they create knowledge that guides science and conservation decisions.
Every Observation Matters
These efforts connect to a broader global movement, reflected in World Migratory Bird Day 2026 and its theme, “Every Bird Counts – Your Observations Matter!” Across continents, people record sightings and track patterns, contributing data that reveals changes in migration, populations, and environmental pressures.
Standing on a mudflat, a single sighting may seem small. But migration depends on fragile, interconnected links, where every loss matters. Each observation adds clarity. Each action carries weight. For birds crossing continents, survival is never guaranteed—and in the end, every bird, and every observation, truly counts.
