TELUK AIR TAWAR, Malaysia — The tide is rising. On the Teluk Air Tawar-Kuala Muda coast (TAT-KM) of Penang state in Peninsular Malaysia, fishers are boating out to the sea for their morning catch. From afar, small brownish birds walk on the mudflat outside the mangrove-lined coast. When a boat gets closer, a flock of about 100 birds soars at once, swirls in unison, and lands farther away.

It’s early July when Mongabay visits, the quieter time of the year in the TAT-KM mudflat. Come December, this mudflat will turn into a crowded pit stop for the birds. More than 12,000 migratory shorebirds — common redshanks (Tringa totanus), bar-tailed godwits (Limosa lapponica), Asian dowitchers (Limnodromus semipalmatus) — from Siberia and Alaska, about 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles) away, will rest and feed here.

Some birds will winter in TAT-KM, while others will stay long enough to refuel and continue their 20,000-km (12,400-mi) flight to Australia and New Zealand. Along this route, or flyway, they rely on a network of coastal wetlands like TAT-KM to support their journey.

Among the birds that once stopped here is the critically endangered spoon-billed sandpiper (Calidris pygmaea), a small shorebird with a unique spatula-shaped bill. Of all eight global flyways, it flies only on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF), a migration route spanning 22 countries in Siberia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

However, this sandpiper has been so severely impacted by habitat loss, that its population has declined to an estimated 240 to 620 mature birds, globally. Scientists recently reported that only 15% of its suitable habitat outside the breeding grounds in Siberia and Alaska is protected; TAT-KM is among the unprotected areas.

The study’s lead researcher, Lili Sun, tells Mongabay in a video call that the finding is shocking, and the situation “dire.” The paper notes that the development of tidal flats, known as reclamation, for harbors and aquaculture ponds is among the drivers of this habitat loss, as is the invasion of Spartina alterniflora, a grass species used for stabilizing shorelines, and rising sea levels.

Sun says her team initiated the study after realizing many spoon-billed sandpipers have been sighted outside protected areas. They wanted to know why: Are the protected areas wrongly delineated? Has the species’ habitat changed? And why the changes?

According to the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, protected areas are designated and managed for long-term conservation “through legal or other effective means.”

To find the answers, Sun’s team used computer modeling to predict where the birds could potentially live outside their breeding grounds, based on the locations where they’ve been observed and the environmental conditions they require, such as elevation and distance from the shore.

Co-author Yuyu Wang says the paper is important in informing scientists and conservationists about where the sandpiper’s suitable habitats are, and whether these areas are protected.

They also identified the threat levels from human activities in these areas. “So, when resources [for conservation] are limited, we can choose to prioritize the protection of areas with high threat level,” Wang says.

Ding Li Yong, head of flyways and species conservation at BirdLife International, who wasn’t part of the study, says in a video call that, “The study has confirmed the conservationists’ greatest concerns and fears that the spoon-billed sandpiper is not well protected in Southeast Asia.” Many coastal wetlands that migratory shorebirds rely on are not protected.

He adds that as migratory shorebirds travel between countries, their conservation requires international collaboration. That’s why BirdLife International is connecting NGO partners across Asia, and communicating with governments through the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP), he says.

The EAAFP is a voluntary network of national governments, intergovernmental agencies, NGOs and private enterprises aimed at encouraging dialogue and collaboration to conserve migratory waterbirds (including inland waterbirds) and their habitats. Among the members, only the governments can nominate a site to become an EAAF Flyway Network Site.

In November 2023, the Penang state government announced its plan to nominate TAT-KM as an EAAFP Flyway Network Site. If successful, it will be the first one in Peninsular Malaysia.

Currently, Malaysia has only one EAAFP Flyway Network Site: Bako-Buntal Bay in Sarawak state, Malaysian Borneo. In 2022, the sighting of a spoon-billed sandpiper in Bako-Buntal Bay surprised local conservationists.

Yong says the spoon-billed sandpiper is, for him, “an emblem to protect shorebirds for Malaysia.”

“Where there’re some [spoon-billed] sandpipers, there’re also 10,000 other shorebirds. Which is to say that if I can secure the wetland for some sandpipers, I protect all other shorebirds,” he says.

However, securing wetlands for conservation isn’t easy.

In 2013, the Penang state government had approved the development of an aquaculture industry zone in TAT-KM. Over the years, NGOs and fishers have objected to the project over environmental concerns. Muhd Ali Hamzah, who heads the Sungai Tembus Fishers Unit, says he remembers handing their memorandum against the project to the state government.

He later became interested in migratory shorebirds after learning about them from Shorebirds Peninsular Malaysia Project (SPMP), a local conservation group. “Terrific! That bird is very rare,” he says, as he recalls seeing photos of an endangered black-faced spoonbill (Platalea minor), a large shorebird that also has a spatulate bill, at TAT-KM in 2021. In fact, TAT-KM also hosts other threatened species, such as the spotted greenshank (Tringa guttifer) and far eastern curlew (Numenius madagascariensis). Even a spoon-billed sandpiper was once photographed in TAT-KM in 2013. But Muhd Ali says he’s never seen one.

To raise awareness about conserving shorebirds and TAT-KM, the SPMP has been working with fishers, local government, the forestry department and the wildlife department since 2018. It also organizes workshops and camps about shorebirds for students, teachers and the general public.

SPMP coordinator Nur Munira Azman says she hasn’t heard about the aquaculture project lately. “But I still have the feeling that if the area doesn’t have any recognition like a Ramsar Site, at any time, they will come up again to propose the area [for aquaculture industry use],” she tells Mongabay in a video call. She says she wants TAT-KM to become an EAAFP Flyway Network Site or a Ramsar Site, which would recognize its global importance as a wetland.

The nomination process for recognition as a flyway network site takes time, says Mohd Husaini Saad, special officer to Penang’s Executive Committee for Housing and Environment chair. In an email to Mongabay, he points to the need to conduct stakeholder engagement sessions with related government departments and residents, including fishers, farmers, village communities and community leaders. He says the government will proceed with the nomination only after completing all the sessions, and if the residents strongly support the nomination.

Mohd Husaini says the government has gazetted “a large part” of the mangrove forest in TAT-KM as permanent reserved forest. In Malaysia, harvesting resources from a permanent reserved forest require a license or permit from the forestry department.

But Nur Munira says she’s doubtful. She says she isn’t sure which part of the TAT-KM mangrove forest is gazetted. “Like an apple, if you protect half, another half, you let somebody eat it and then come inside to destroy the area. Of course, it will eventually impact the other parts, right?” she says, adding she’s concerned about whether the ecosystem will remain intact.

Looking across all the suitable habitats mapped, the scientists recommend prioritizing the protection of wintering areas in Thailand and Myanmar, where spoon-billed sandpiper sightings have been recorded consistently over the years — and not in Malaysia. Each winter, Myanmar’s Gulf of Mottama hosts more than 50% of the species’ global population. However, larger shorebirds are being trapped for food there, and the spoon-billed sandpipers aren’t spared from the nets.

While the paper notes that prohibiting shorebird hunting by law has reduced threats to spoon-billed sandpipers in Myanmar, Pyae Phyo Aung, executive director of Nature Conservation Society Myanmar (NCS), says this isn’t the case. He tells Mongabay in a video call that local community members have resumed eating shorebirds after the military coup in 2021.

Unlike TAT-KM, the Gulf of Mottama is both an EAAFP Flyway Network Site and a Ramsar Site. While compliance with EAAFP measures is voluntary, with the Ramsar Convention is legally binding. That means Myanmar, as a signatory, is obligated to protect its Ramsar sites. But the country’s political crisis has also stalled plans for conserving the site.

NCS now has to balance conservation with community needs. It’s educating the community not to consume shorebirds, and distributing fishing gear to encourage fishing. It also trains local communities in bird-watching and patrolling the area.

Back in TAT-KM, other than fishing, Muhd Ali also offers boat services for bird-watching. He says their jetty has about six to seven boats that can be hired for the activity.

Speaking of the shorebirds that Mongabay observes at the mudflat in early July, he says, “These birds have arrived early. I knew they arrived early because I brought my binoculars the other day. I looked at their feathers.”

Muhd Ali says he wants TAT-KM to be better protected for the birds.

These shorebirds have become more than just flocks of birds that fly in beautiful patterns, when Muhd Ali comes home from fishing.

Banner image: Spoon-billed sandpiper in Tiaozini, China. Image courtesy of Dongming Li.

How to tell if mangrove restoration is working? Listen to the birds

Citations:

Effendi, M. R., Azman, N. M., Azizan, M. N., Wan Ahmad, W. J., & Mansor, M. S. (2024). Assessing Shorebirds passage and wintering on the West Coast of peninsular Malaysia. Waterbirds, 47(3). doi:10.1675/063.047.0303

Jia, Y., Sun, L., Guo, J., Ren, S., Yang, H., Huang, G., … Lei, G. (2025). Identifying non-breeding habitat conservation gaps of the critically threatened spoon-billed sandpiper (Calidris pygmaea) using species distribution model. Global Ecology and Conservation, 61, e03640. doi:10.1016/j.gecco.2025.e03640

Teepol, B., Kong, D., Yong, D. L., & Au, N. J. (2023). Discovery of the globally threatened spoon-billed sandpiper Calidris pygmaea in Borneo. Wader Study, 130(1), 74-77. doi:10.18194/ws.00293

Lu, X., Yang, H., Piersma, T., Sun, L., Chen, Q., Jia, Y., … Rao, X. (2022). Food resources for spoon-billed sandpipers (Calidris pygmaea) in the mudflats of Leizhou Bay, southern China. Frontiers in Marine Science, 9. doi:10.3389/fmars.2022.1005327

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