Brazil is bigger than the US and as equally varied in its natural habitats. Many of these habitats support millions of wintering migratory shorebirds from all over the US and Canada. The shorebirds stopping over on Delaware Bay before going to the Arctic to breed, winter and stopover in many locations along the northern and eastern coasts of Brazil. We studied the main wintering/stopover area in the north, in the states of Maranhao and Para. We also studied one of the main shorebird stopovers in Lagoa de Peixe in southern Brazil. In both locations, knots and other arctic nesting shorebirds build weight to fly directly to Delaware Bay.
I watched the kids explore the exhibit. The beach and pond where the sanderlings chittered away at each other or the water tank where horseshoe crabs crawled along the bottom. I saw many other people move through the exhibit. Most just experienced the birds and crabs and moved on. The Zoo predicts more than 2 million people will see this exhibit yearly.