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BTO Blueline
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 recent winter decline adds another 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, where breeding waders 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. 2004). Ringed Plovers that choose beaches for nesting are especially vulnerable to disturbance, and were in some regions in 1984 largely confined to wardened reserves. The recent marked increase in nest failures at the egg stage is worrying and warrants investigation.
 

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

Productivity trends
Clutch size graph

 

 

Insufficient data on brood size
available for this species
Egg nest failure graph

 

 

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., Coombes, R.H.,
Downie, I.S., Freeman, S.N., Joys, A.C., Leech, D.I., Raven, M.J., Robinson, R.A. and Thewlis, R.M. (2006)
Breeding Birds in the Wider Countryside: their conservation status 2005.
BTO Research Report No. 435. BTO, Thetford. (http://www.bto.org/birdtrends)

Pages maintained by Susan Waghorn and Iain Downie: Last updated 28 April, 2006