BTO - Breeding Birds of the Wider Countryside: Ringed Plover

RINGED PLOVER
Charadrius hiaticula

Ringed Plover © Tommy Holden

• Population
changes

• Productivity
trends

• Additional
information

Conservation listings

Europe: no SPEC category (concentrated in Europe, conservation status favourable)
UK: amber (25–50% decline in winter population, >20% East Atlantic Flyway population in winter)

Long-term trend

UK: uncertain

UK population size

8,540 pairs in 1984 (Prater 1989: APEP06, rounded to 8,600 BiE04)

Status summary

This species was already amber-listed on the strength of its concentration within UK in the winter, but a decline in winter numbers since the late 1980s (Banks et al. 2006) adds a further amber criterion. The breeding population is not monitored annually, but a BTO survey in 1984 showed increases throughout the UK since the previous survey in 1973–74 (Prater 1989). The spread of the breeding distribution inland between the two atlas periods, especially in England, was probably associated with the increase in number of gravel pits and reservoirs (Gibbons et al. 1993). The 1984 survey revealed that over 25% of the UK population nested on the Western Isles, especially on the machair, but breeding waders there have subsequently suffered greatly from predation by introduced hedgehogs (Jackson et al. 2004). Surveys in England and Wales revealed an increase of 12% in breeding birds in wet meadows between 1982 and 2002 (Wilson et al. 2005). The marked increase in nest failures at the egg stage is worrying and warrants investigation. Ringed Plovers that choose beaches for nesting are especially vulnerable to disturbance, and were in some regions in 1984 largely confined to wardened reserves (Prater 1989). Human usage of beach areas severely restricts the availability of this habitat to nesting plovers (Liley & Sutherland 2007). BTO undertook a repeat breeding survey of Ringed Plovers (and Little Ringed Plovers C. dubius) throughout the UK during April–July 2007 (click here).

Population changes

Annual breeding population changes for this species are not currently monitored by BTO

Productivity trends

Insufficient data on brood size
available for this species

Insufficient data on nestling failure
available for this species

Laying date graph

Insufficient data on CES
available for this species

Additional information


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This report should be cited as: Baillie, S.R., Marchant, J.H., Crick, H.Q.P., Noble, D.G., Balmer, D.E., Barimore, C., Coombes, R.H., Downie, I.S., Freeman, S.N., Joys, A.C., Leech, D.I., Raven, M.J., Robinson, R.A. & Thewlis, R.M. (2007) Breeding Birds in the Wider Countryside: their conservation status 2007. BTO Research Report No. 487. BTO, Thetford. (http://www.bto.org/birdtrends) Pages maintained by Susan Waghorn and Iain Downie: Last updated 7 November, 2008