When mate selection is complete nesting begins. Most species of shorebirds lay no more than 4 eggs. Small birds such as Western and Least Sandpipers incubate their eggs from 19 to 22 days. Shorebird chick mortality is often high due to starvation, exposure to the elements, and predation by gulls, foxes and other mammals. Most chicks are sufficiently grown and able to fly after about a month at which point the parents leave them.
Adults fly south before juveniles.
Females usually leave first followed by males. A Shorebirds eat a variety of invertebrate prey. Different species of shorebirds forage in different ways. Plovers have large eyes and locate their food visually by picking it from the surface of saturated soil areas. Sandpipers have eyesight that is less acute and generally find food by touch, probing soft substrates with their bills.