Giving shorebirds space on the beach makes a big difference

When Professor Ashley Dayer was walking on the beach with her 8-year-old son recently, he stopped her before she got too close to a group of shorebirds.

“Momma, stop. We have to walk around the shorebirds,” he told her.

Dayer smiled. That moment was the perfect example of the human behavior change she and conservation partners have spent more than a decade trying to encourage along beaches used by both people and imperiled shorebirds.

Now, new research suggests those seemingly simple choices by beachgoers could be making a difference for the birds themselves. The team’s approach, known as community-based social marketing, or CBSM, goes beyond telling people that shorebirds need protection.

The study, published in Conservation Science and Practice and funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, found that shorebirds at beaches with campaigns encouraging people to walk around flocks and give birds space showed significantly less vigilance, or being on alert, than birds at sites without campaigns.

Researchers also found lower levels of vigilance at sites with beach stewards present, meaning birds can spend more time on their typical activities like resting and feeding.

“Funders and decision-makers often question if outreach is effective or worth the investment in conservation, because ultimately we’re all trying to positively impact the species we are trying to conserve,” said Sami Livingston, a postdoctoral associate and co-author on the study. “But it’s really hard to match biological outcomes to social interventions. This study is groundbreaking in this way.”

Dayer and Livingston conceived and designed the broader project, secured its funding, and coached sites on designing and implementing community-based social marketing. The marketing campaigns were based on studies of beachgoers’ thoughts and behaviors, undertaken by past Virginia Tech graduate students working with Dayer in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation. The new paper was led by Sarah Saunders of the National Audubon Society and included collaborators from Audubon, Manomet Conservation Sciences, along with Dayer and Livingston.

In their approach, conservationists first try to understand what drives a particular human behavior and what might make a bird-friendly alternative easier or more appealing. Campaigns can then use tools such as social norms, prompts, commitments, signs, direct engagement, or community events to encourage a specific action. The message and method are tailored to the people and place rather than applied as a one-size-fits-all campaign.

“Usually, it’s not that beachgoers are thinking, ‘I want to disturb a shorebird,’” Dayer explained. “It’s that their focus is on enjoying their time at the beach.”

The challenge is that people and shorebirds often want the same stretch of sand at the same time.

Shorebirds use beaches for feeding, resting, nesting, and raising chicks. When people or dogs approach, birds may stop those activities to watch the potential threat, move away, or take flight. Repeated disturbance can reduce feeding, increase stress, and impact reproductive success.

So, the campaigns focus on concrete, simple behavior choices: walk around a flock rather than through it, stay away from marked nesting areas, keep dogs leashed, or take dogs to another beach when possible.

The team also has tools available for free to anyone looking to assist in these issues:

• The Shorebird Disturbance Reduction Toolkit
• Information about participating sites

The project’s current Community of Practice, led by Livingston, includes 40 participants from seven organizations, learning how to design effective community-based social marketing campaigns. Across recent phases of the work, outreach efforts have reached more than 23,000 beachgoers and contributed to improved management on more than 4,000 acres. In 2024, the Virginia Tech-led effort worked with 20 sites stretching from Canada to Brazil.

“This paper is our first biological look at whether or not what we’re doing is making a difference for shorebirds,” Dayer said. “We’re encouraged to see the positive impact of the sites we’ve been working with.”

Original Study: doi.org/10.1111/csp2.70370