The species has recently been moved from the amber to the green list because new data suggest that it does not qualify as internationally important during the breeding season. There was no annual monitoring of the breeding population before the inception of BBS. Since 1994, BBS has shown some increase in Scotland and the UK, but this is believed to follow an earlier decline (Gibbons et al. 1993). A detailed survey has confirmed a sharp decline in Wales since the 1980s, with just 36 pairs located in 2007 (Johnstone et al. 2008). Nest survival on grass moors, unlike that on heather moors, may have declined over time (Crick 1992), perhaps linked to increased stocking densities of sheep (Fuller 1996). There is no clear trend in clutch size; a large number of late-season nest records, which provide higher proportions of two- and three-egg clutches, were submitted from an intensive study during 1996–98 (J.W. Pearce-Higgins, pers. comm.). Warmer springs are reported to advance the breeding phenology of Golden Plovers and of their tipulid prey (Pearce-Higgins et al. 2005). Winter numbers counted by WeBS, although mainly at coastal sites and omitting some big concentrations inland, have increased sharply in Britain since the mid 1980s (Austin et al. 2008); these birds are mainly of Fennoscandian or Russian origin.

Population changes

Productivity trends

Additional information

• Maps and statistics from British and Irish atlases
• BirdFacts page on species biology
• BirdTrack results