DOI: 10.5061/dryad.1zcrjdg0g
title: Data from: Shorebirds are shrinking and shape-shifting: Declining body size and lengthening bills in the past half-century

description: Animals are predicted to shrink and shape-shift as the climate warms;
 declining in size, while their appendages lengthen. Determining which
 types of species are undergoing these morphological changes, and why, is
 critical to understanding species responses to global change, including
 potential adaptation to climate warming. We examine body size and bill
 length changes in 25 shorebird species using extensive field data
 (&gt;200,000 observations) collected over 46 years (1975-2021) by
 community scientists. We show widespread body size declines over time, and
 after short-term exposure to warmer summers. Meanwhile, shorebird bills
 are lengthening over time but shorten after hot summers. Shrinking and
 shape-shifting patterns are consistent across ecologically diverse
 shorebirds from tropical and temperate Australia, are pronounced in
 smaller species, and vary according to migration behaviour. These
 widespread morphological changes could be explained by multiple drivers,
 including adaptive and maladaptive responses to nutritional stress, or by
 thermal adaptation to climate warming.
description: Shorebird morphometric data were collected in the field by
 community scientists of the Victorian Wader Study Group and the
 Australasian Wader Studies Group. Shorebirds were typically captured using
 cannon nets, bill length (culmen length) was measured using callipers,
 wing length (from shoulder to the tip of the longest, straightened primary
 feather) was measured using a butt-ended ruler, mass was measured using
 platform or spring scales.   
description: # Shorebirds are shrinking and shape-shifting
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.1zcrjdg0g](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.1zcrjdg0g) The dataset includes data collected from wild shorebirds captured and released in the field from 1975-2021 in north-western and south-eastern Australia, including mass, wing length and bill length measurements, as well climate data obtained from nearby Australian Bureau of Meteorology weather stations. ## Description of the data and file structure The file includes the data described in the table below. Cells containing 'NA' are present were data are not available. For further details on how the data was collected, please see the published paper. | **Datasheet Label** | **Explanation** | | :---------------------- | :----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | BillData | Data used for bill length analyses | | WingLengthData | Data used for wing length analyses | | RelativeWingLengthData | Data used for relative wing length analyses | |  MassData |  Data used for mass analyses | | **Column Label** | **Explanation** | | Bill | Shorebird bill length (mm) | | WL | Shorebird wing length (mm) | | Mass | Shorebird mass (g) | | year | Year of sample collection | | age | Estimated age ('juv' = first year juveniles; 'adult' = shorebirds two years or older; very young birds with downy feathers are not included in this dataset) | | month | Month of sample collection (1 = Jan) | | English | Species English name | | BLFamilyLatin | Taxonomic family | | north.south | Sample location (north = north-western Australia; south = south-eastern Australia) | | TipLabel | Species name corresponding to phylogenetic tree | | migration | Species movement behaviour (M = migratory, N = nomadic or partly migratory, R = resident) | | Mean\_Max\_5Year\_prior | Average mean maximum summer temperature in north-western or south-eastern coastal Australia over five years prior to the sample date | | MeanSpeciesMass | Mean species mass (rounded to the nearest 10 g) | ## Code R code for analyses and figures (run using R version 4.0.4) from McQueen et al. Shorebirds and Shrinking and Shape-shifting