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Mum and dad take turns keeping their eggs warm but the father of the world’s most threatened shorebird does the childcare when the chicks hatch. The spoon-billed sandpiper is the most endangered shorebird in the world, as well as the most endearing and smallest. It is the size of a sparrow and yet it flies all the way from Southeast Asia to the Russian tundra to breed and rear its young. A potted story of its family life is told to Ann Jones by Christoph Zockler of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Task Force, wildlife film-maker Gerrit Vyn and Evgeny Syroechkovskiy of Birds Russia. Image: Adult spoon-billed sandpiper in Chukotka/© Pavel Tomkovich/Egor Loktionov