Atlantic Flyway Shorebird Initiative 2027
Atlantic Flyway Shorebird Initiative 2027 supports conservation teams with habitat management, research, and monitoring funds to recover shorebirds across their breeding, migration, and wintering sites.
Funder: National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
Due Dates: November 5, 2026 (Full proposal, 11:59 PM Eastern Time)
Funding Amounts: Most awards $75,000–$200,000 for 1–3 years; $172,800 available for piping plover
Summary: Supports habitat management, conservation, research, and monitoring to recover shorebirds across the Atlantic Flyway.
Key Information: A minimum 1:1 non-federal match is required, except for piping plover projects.
Description
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Atlantic Flyway Shorebird Initiative supports full-lifecycle conservation of American oystercatcher, whimbrel, and red knot. Projects improve habitat function and condition at critical breeding, staging, and wintering sites along the U.S. Atlantic seaboard, Gulf Coast, Caribbean, and South America. Actions benefiting these focal species are also expected to benefit dozens of other shorebird species.
The 2027 cycle prioritizes predator management, human disturbance reduction, habitat resilience, population modeling, movement tracking, and monitoring. It also supports working group coordination, monitoring infrastructure, Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN) designations, and site assessments. A separate priority supports site-based management to increase Atlantic piping plover breeding productivity, particularly in Virginia and the southern recovery unit.
